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See the First Images NASA’s Juno Took As It Sailed by Ganymede
NASA ^

Posted on 06/08/2021 9:07:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter’s largest moon than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy orb.

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 image of Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager during Juno’s June 7, 2021, flyby of the icy moon. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

“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.”

Find out where Juno is at this moment with NASA’s interactive Eyes on the Solar System. With three giant blades stretching out some 66 feet (20 meters) from its cylindrical, six-sided body, the Juno spacecraft is a dynamic engineering marvel, spinning to keep itself stable as it makes oval-shaped orbits around Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Juno mission expands into the future

Juno detects ‘Sprites’ and ‘Elves’

All about Ganymede

Using its green filter, the spacecraft’s JunoCam visible-light imager captured almost an entire side of the water-ice-encrusted moon. Later, when versions of the same image come down incorporating the camera’s red and blue filters, imaging experts will be able to provide a color portrait of Ganymede. Image resolution is about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel.

In addition, Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit, a navigation camera that keeps the spacecraft on course, provided a black-and-white picture of Ganymede’s dark side (the side opposite the Sun) bathed in dim light scattered off Jupiter. Image resolution is between 0.37 to 0.56 miles (600 to 900 meters) per pixel.

This image of the dark side of Ganymede was obtained by Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit navigation camera during its June 7, 2021, flyby of the moon. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

“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.

The solar-powered spacecraft’s encounter with the Jovian moon is expected to yield insights into its composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell while also providing measurements of the radiation environment that will benefit future missions to the Jovian system.

More About the Mission

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: ganymede; ganymedehypothesis; juno; nasa; tedholden
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Mosied?


21 posted on 06/08/2021 10:41:01 PM PDT by Az Joe (FREE CHAUVIN!)
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To: sageburn
I used to be in my very early youth an enthusiastic amateur astronomer. Once I understood the vastness of space I was very depressed and so very much disappointed.

It did the exact opposite for me. The seemingly limitless and infinite distances and size of objects such as galaxies, *never* cease to amaze me.

22 posted on 06/08/2021 11:09:32 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2

IKR! It is absolutely mind-boggling. I read with amusment articles about the possibility of achieving speed-of-light capabilities. Big deal! They’re going to need a greater magnitude of understanding to even perceive the actual distances involved. The speed of light is not even equivalent to the speed of an ox-drawn cart.


23 posted on 06/08/2021 11:22:06 PM PDT by sageburn
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To: sageburn

It seems like we’re not able to comprehend the grand plan. Thinking of infinity makes my brain melt. Just like tcp/ip does.


24 posted on 06/08/2021 11:25:24 PM PDT by bicyclerepair (Trust God.)
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To: Az Joe

Yes “Mosied”. “Motsied” is part of a Hebrew prayer thanking God for what he has given us, such as Bread, water, etc. re eating.


25 posted on 06/08/2021 11:33:36 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: sageburn

For man, interstellar travel in the future won’t be done with traditional rocket designs crawling at light speed. It will take something a bit more creative.

I don’t sweat the interstellar travel part for humans. It’s not going to happen for a looong time. However, traveling within the Solar System quite possible and has already been accomplished by our unmanned spacecraft.


26 posted on 06/08/2021 11:52:27 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Moseyed?


27 posted on 06/09/2021 12:28:32 AM PDT by dljordan (Slouching towards Woketopia)
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To: ifinnegan
What verb is best?

Orbited

28 posted on 06/09/2021 12:56:20 AM PDT by Nateman (If the Left Is not screaming , you are doing it wrong..)
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To: bitt

INteresting, the ines seem to be survace “wrinkles” of a plaible thin crust , rather than tectonic based fault lines.

Could be just ice, melted temporarily and then frozen into parallel ridges?

Or someone was turned loose with a thousand bulldozers all going in a smiliar direction.


29 posted on 06/09/2021 2:10:24 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
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To: BenLurkin

whizzed past....


30 posted on 06/09/2021 3:28:03 AM PDT by ArtDodger
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To: ArtDodger

Oops.. Whizzed passed.


31 posted on 06/09/2021 3:29:06 AM PDT by ArtDodger
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Motsied?

That sounds Yiddish.

Moseyed sounds more western.


32 posted on 06/09/2021 4:59:01 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: ArtDodger

Whizzed past...reminds me of John Glenn and his pretty urine crystals.

https://youtu.be/GlWhGEbvLUQ


33 posted on 06/09/2021 5:04:03 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: BenLurkin

All the thinking that had to be done to get this space craft into that orbit is mind-blowing. Props to the engineers who made it happen. People are amazing.


34 posted on 06/09/2021 6:07:58 AM PDT by lurk ( )
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To: lurk

Juno spacecraft: Technicians prepare the Jupiter-bound probe for a round of testing that simulates the vibrations the spacecraft will experience during launch. This image was taken on November 22, 2010, in the high-bay clean-room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.

35 posted on 06/09/2021 1:26:25 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: BenLurkin

It’s in black and white?


36 posted on 06/09/2021 3:32:30 PM PDT by MNDude
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