See the First Images NASA's Juno Took As It Sailed by Ganymede
The first two images from NASA Juno's June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter's giant moon Ganymede have been received on Earth. The photos – one from the Jupiter orbiter's JunoCam imager and the other from its Stellar Reference Unit star camera – show the surface in remarkable detail, including craters, clearly distinct dark and bright terrain, and long structural features possibly linked to tectonic faults.
"This is the closest any spacecraft has come to this mammoth moon in a generation," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "We are going to take our time before we draw any scientific conclusions, but until then we can simply marvel at this celestial wonder."
[...] "The conditions in which we collected the dark side image of Ganymede were ideal for a low-light camera like our Stellar Reference Unit," said Heidi Becker, Juno's radiation monitoring lead at JPL. "So this is a different part of the surface than seen by JunoCam in direct sunlight. It will be fun to see what the two teams can piece together."
The spacecraft will send more images from its Ganymede flyby in the coming days, with JunoCam's raw images being made available here.
Also at NYT.
Previously: Close Encounters of the Jovian Kind: NASA's Juno to Get a Close Look at Jupiter's Moon Ganymede
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Story at SciTechDaily:
On Monday, June 7, at 1:35 p.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. PDT), NASA's Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system's largest natural satellite since NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000. Along with striking imagery, the solar-powered spacecraft's flyby will yield insights into the moon's composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell. Juno's measurements of the radiation environment near the moon will also benefit future missions to the Jovian system.
Ganymede is bigger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetosphere – a bubble-shaped region of charged particles surrounding the celestial body.
"Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "By flying so close, we will bring the exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century, both complementing future missions with our unique sensors and helping prepare for the next generation of missions to the Jovian system – NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's [European Space Agency's] JUpiter ICy moons Explorer [JUICE] mission."
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @12:01PM (4 children)
While the scientists are mincing their words, it's clear these are runways for the spacecraft they're going to use to invade Earth... we're fucked.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday June 09 2021, @02:18PM
The article's title did not mince any words. Whether this was deliberate or an unintentional slip, the title of the article unambiguously tells us that Juno's mode of propulsion is a Sail.
That is significant news. And they can't take it back now.
Heads will role.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 09 2021, @03:33PM (1 child)
No we're not: The Ganymedians are seeking out intelligent life.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday June 09 2021, @03:47PM
Alright, humanity might be safe, but life on Earth is still likely to change. I personally will miss our delicious bovine betters.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Thursday June 10 2021, @04:55PM
That's just a Minervan ship. No worries, they're borderline terrified of our nightmare planet.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday June 10 2021, @02:37AM
One interesting feature is that the larger craters have hollow dimples in the center. Water? Bounce? Hmmm.