NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft flew by the moon in 1979, and Galileo made the aforementioned close pass of Ganymede in 2000. Before Juno, only three other spacecraft have seen Ganymede, the solar system's largest moon up close. Ganymede will be the main target of the JUICE mission, which will also explore Callisto and Europa. "By flying so close, we will bring the exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century." "Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible," principal investigator Scott Bolton, a space scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a NASA statement. Only five images from the spacecraft's star camera, JunoCam, are expected to flow back to Earth, however, because the moon appeared and disappeared from the spacecraft's view in just 25 minutes during the flyby. The last instrument was attempting to identify the ingredients of the lighter and darker patches of Ganymede's ice shell, NASA said. The flyby included probing by several of Juno's instruments and cameras: three different cameras, radio instruments, the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS), the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instruments and the Microwave Radiometer (MWR). Icy moons are considered to be promising environments for habitability due to their watery environments and source of energy from the gravitational tug of nearby planets. Free, fast and easy way find a job of 806.000+ postings in Juno Beach, FL and other big cities in USA. Full-time, temporary, and part-time jobs.
The newly accomplished Ganymede flyby could offer crucial information for future exploration of Jupiter's icy moons, where two missions are set to explore in the 2030s: the JUICE mission by the European Space Agency and the Europa Clipper mission by NASA. Search and apply for the latest Web work jobs in Juno Beach, FL.