Juno Spacecraft Captures New Spectacular Images Of Jupiter

First Posted: Mar 30, 2017 03:10 AM EDT

NASA's Juno mission has just completed its fifth close flyby of Jupiter last Monday, March 27, 2017. The unmanned spacecraft just captured stunning images of the gas giant planet.

Juno had its closest approach at about 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops. It traveled at a speed of about 129,000 miles per hour (57.8 kilometers per second). Juno had eight science tools that aided it to gather data during the flyby.

Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said that this will be the fourth science pass and they are excited what Juno will discover. He further said that they learn new insights that aid them to understand about the giant plant every time they get near Jupiter's cloud tops.

In Juno's flybys in the past, the Juno science team discovered that the magnetic fields of Jupiter are more complex than previously thought. These include its belts and zones that are expanded deep into the interior. The energetic particles that produce auroras indicate a complex current system that involves charged material struck from the volcanoes on Jupiter's moon lo, according to NASA.

CNBC reports that Juno's next mission is scheduled on May 19, 2017. Meanwhile, get a glimpse of the following photos taken by Juno spacecraft on its fifth flyby of Jupiter.

Like a galaxy of swirling storms, this color-enhanced image of Jupiter was acquired by our @NASAJuno spacecraft: https://t.co/721smt4ifq pic.twitter.com/Mk5Hy7prZy

— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2017

Jupiter's North Pole (PJ-5) New #JunoCam raw images are available now! pic.twitter.com/IofcUaOIIJ — Roman Tkachenko (@_RomanTkachenko) March 29, 2017

A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from @NASAJuno - Great recent Astronomy Picture of the Day: https://t.co/Hn7YWytO6M #APOD #space pic.twitter.com/56gxlvsOWA — Dave Dickinson (@Astroguyz) March 1, 2017