Jupiter has been putting on quite a show in the night sky all spring, but it pales in comparison to the images NASA’s Juno spacecraft will start sending back after entering orbit around our largest planet on July 4:
Jensen explained that JunoCam will be taking 15 images per orbit. … When it reaches the perijove (the point in orbit closest to Jupiter —and a good Scrabble word), it will take pictures at 1600 x 1200px. At that point, Jupiter's face will entirely cover the camera's field of view. This will be the closest a camera has ever been to the planet, the first time we will be able to see through the clouds, and the first time we will see images directly over the north and south poles.
Jupiter was first briefly visited by Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and more closely by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1979. Those early pictures of delicate spirals and gaudy bands in the upper atmosphere forever changed our understanding of gas giants. But the unexpected costars of those furtive flybys turned out to be the enigmatic moons, particularly volcanic Io and tantalizing Europa.
That understanding took a quantum leap when the Galileo spacecraft reached the system in 1995 and orbited Jupiter for almost a decade. Counting Cassini on its way to Saturn, Juno will be the seventh unmanned spacecraft to visit the giant planet, but only the second to go into orbit around it for an extended period. That orbit will be circumpolar, giving us a detailed view of the polar regions for the first time.
There will be lots more on this exciting mission over the next few months, including loads of the best images ever captured of Jupiter and its many moons. You can follow all those events and more at the Juno homepage here.