Juno solar probe transmits first snapshot of Jupiter

NASA’s Juno probe won’t arrive at Jupiter until next week, but has already transmitted a first image of the largest planet in the solar system and four visible moons. Juno has been on his way to the big planet for five years.

Juno took the photo last week from a distance of 10.9 million kilometers. That is still too far to cycle, but compared to the journey the probe has made, Juno is almost there. The entire journey is 2800 million kilometers.

Of course, the photo shows the gas giant itself, but also the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. They are visible as small dots. Of course, that’s not all of Jupiter’s moons. In total, there are 67 known moons of the gas planet.

NASA launched Juno five years ago. It is the first solar-powered probe to pass beyond Mars. Until now, solar cells were not efficient enough to function so far from the sun.