NASA Launches Juno to Jupiter

In this essay, I intend to summarize Kerry Sheridan’s article about the launching of the spacecraft Juno towards Jupiter.

                Yesterday, on August 5, 2011, NASA launched the solar-powered spacecraft Juno to discover more facts about the largest planet in the solar system – Jupiter. The said spacecraft was propelled out of Earth aboard the Atlas V rocket and blasted off at 12:25pm in Florida at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The billion-dollar-worth spacecraft is expected to arrive to Jupiter approximately after 5 years in July 2016 and orbit it at least 30 times in a period of just a single year. Named after the Roman God of Jupiter, Juno’s primary mission is to probe the origin of the Jupiter and the whole solar system as well for it is believed by scientists that Jupiter has been the first planet to take shape.

                With a mission worth 5 years, Juno would spend the first 2 years going around the Sun then it would return to Earth to receive the needed gravitational boost to accelerate towards Jupiter in the next 3 years. Once it reaches the said planet, Juno would set up and study more about key ingredients for the formation of Jupiter by making use of state-of-the-art instruments provided by various space agencies. Aside from that, Scientists are also eager to learn more about the 300-year-old Great Red Spot of Jupiter and its strong magnetic fields.

                Juno is also part of a series of new planetary space missions. Scientists are hoping that through these space missions, Juno and the other spacecraft in the future would be able to answer some of the universe’s toughest questions especially those concerning our origin. With NASA’s success in the world of space exploration, there’s surely a brand new discovery just waiting to be uncovered from the very fabric of the universe.