Washington Feb 9 (IANS) NASA said its Juno spacecraft accomplished a close flyby over Jupiter s churning atmosphere this week successfully completing its 10th science orbit.
The closest approach was at 6.36 a.m. PST on February 7 NASA said in a statement on Thursday.
All of Juno s science instruments and the spacecraft s JunoCam were in operation during the flyby collecting data that is now being returned to Earth the statement added.
Launched on August 5 2011 Juno recently probed the depths of Jupiter s famous storm the Great Red Spot.
During its first pass over this iconic feature in July 2017 Juno found that the storm penetrates well below the clouds -- about 300 kilometres into the planet s atmosphere.
Jupiter s Great Red Spot is a giant oval of crimson-coloured clouds in Jupiter s southern hemisphere that race counter-clockwise around the oval s perimeter with wind speeds greater than any storm on Earth. It is about 1.3 times as wide as Earth.
The spacecraft arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4 2016. During its mission of exploration Juno soars low over the planet s cloud tops -- as close as about 3 400 kilometres.
During these flybys Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet s origins structure atmosphere and magnetosphere.
--IANS
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