NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully made its ninth (eighth science) flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops on October 24, 2017.
This illustration depicts Juno soaring over the south pole of Jupiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
“Data returned October 31 indicate that Juno completed its eighth science flyby over Jupiter’s cloud tops on October 24,” explained members of the Juno team.
“The confirmation was delayed by several days due to solar conjunction at Jupiter, which affected communications during the days prior to and after the flyby.”
According to the scientists, solar conjunction is the period when the path of communication between Earth and Jupiter comes into close proximity with the Sun.
During solar conjunction, no attempts are made to send new instructions or receive information from Juno, as it is impossible to predict what information might be corrupted due to interference from charged particles from the Sun.
Instead, a transmission moratorium is put into place; engineers send instructions prior to the start of solar conjunction and store data on board for transmission back to Earth following the event.
“All the science collected during the flyby was carried in Juno’s memory until November 1, when Jupiter came out of solar conjunction,” said Edward Hirst, new Juno project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“All science instruments and the JunoCam were operating, and the new data are now being transmitted to Earth and being delivered into the hands of our science team.”
“There is no more exciting place to be than in orbit around Jupiter and no team I’d rather be with than the Juno team,” he added.
“Our spacecraft is in great shape, and the team is looking forward to many more flybys of the Solar System’s largest planet.”
Juno’s next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on December 16, 2017.
