NASA's Juno to make fourth flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops today

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt

New Delhi: NASA's Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter in July last year, is all set to make its fourth flyby over gas giant's mysterious cloud tops on Thursday, February 2, 2017.

As per NASA, Juno will make its close encounter with the giant planet at 4:57 a.m. PST (7:57 a.m. EST, 12:57 UTC) with all of its eight science instruments, including the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, turned on to collect data during the flyby.

At the time of closest approach (called perijove) and traveling at a speed of about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the gas giant, Juno will be about 2,670 miles (4,300 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops.

"Tomorrow may be 'Groundhog Day' here on Earth, but it's never Groundhog Day when you are flying past Jupiter,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "With every close flyby we are finding something new."

Since its arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, Juno has returned spectacular images taken from the gas giant's surface, including a spectacular view of a 'crescent Jupiter' with the iconic 'Great Red Spot' in it.

As Juno science team continues to analyze returns from previous flybys, revelations from the findings include that Jupiter's magnetic fields and aurora are bigger and more powerful than originally thought and that the belts and zones that give the gas giant’s cloud top its distinctive look extend deep into the planet’s interior.

In a latest, the JunoCam, which is the first interplanetary outreach camera, is now being guided with the assistance from the public - where people can participate by voting for what features on Jupiter should be imaged during each flyby.

NASA says peer-reviewed papers with more in-depth science results from Juno’s first three flybys are expected to be published within the next few months. Peer-reviewed papers with more in-depth science results from Juno’s first three flybys are expected to be published within the next few months.

Juno is currently in a 53-day orbit period around Jupiter as the team evaluates options for performing a maneuver to get the spacecraft into a shorter orbit period, adds NASA.