Juno

On August 5, 2011, NASA’s Juno spacecraft embarked on a 5-year journey to Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, after a five-year, 1,740-million-mile journey, and settled into a 53-day polar orbit stretching from just above Jupiter’s cloud tops to the outer reaches of the Jovian magnetosphere.

During the prime mission’s 35 orbits of Jupiter, Juno collected more than three terabits of science data and provided dazzling views of Jupiter and its satellites, all processed by citizen scientists with NASA’s first-ever camera dedicated to public outreach. Juno’s many discoveries have changed our view of Jupiter’s atmosphere and interior, revealing an atmospheric weather layer that extends far beyond its water clouds and a deep interior with a dilute heavy element core. Near the end of the prime mission, as the spacecraft’s orbit evolved, flybys of the moon Ganymede initiated Juno’s transition into a full Jovian system explorer.

Now in its extended mission, Juno will continue its investigation of the solar system’s largest planet through September 2025, or until the spacecraft’s end of life. This extension tasks Juno with becoming an explorer of the full Jovian system – Jupiter and its rings and moons – with additional rendezvous planned for two of Jupiter’s most intriguing moons: Europa and Io.