The European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was launched April 14, 2023 from the ESA's space center in French Guyana. It is expected to reach Jupiter in July 2031 after four gravity assists. It will conduct flybys of Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa
At the end of 2035, Juice will impact on Ganymede when it runs out of propellant.
Elara, the 8th largest moon of Jupiter, was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine January 5, 1905. He made his discovery at the Lick Observatory at the University of California on Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose.
Up until 1975, Elara was known as Jupiter VII when it was given the name Elara. In Greek mythology, Elara is a lover of Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology). Zeus hid her from his jealous wife Hera by putting her deep into the Earth, where she gave birth to the giant Tityos.
NASA lists Elara on their website as having a diameter of 43 km, but a 2015 article in the Astrophysical Journal lists its diameter as around 80 km. Don't know when that will be resolved. Elara orbits Jupiter every 258 days.
The New Horizons spacecraft captured several images of Elara as it passed on its way to Pluto.
Lucy, a spacecraft launched October 16, 2021, will eventually pass by and photograph eight asteroids. Today and in two years time, it will swing by Earth and pick up speed to help it reach asteroid Donaldjohanson, named after the scientist who discovered the Lucy hominin fossils in Ethiopia, in 2025.
In 2027, Lucy will arrive in the L4 Trojan cloud, a cluster of asteroids that orbit ahead of Jupiter in the same path. Lucy will visit four Trojans, Eurybates and its moon Queta, Polymele, Leucus, and Orus.
Lucy will return to Earth in 2031 for another gravity boost and in 2023, will visit Patroclus and its satellite Menoetius in the L5 Trojan cloud, which follows Jupiter. After that, NASA will decide whether or not to extend Lucy's mission.
Ellen Baker, born April 27, 1953 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has been in space three times.
Her first mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-34) as mission specialist in October 1989. The mission deployed the Galileo probe to Jupiter.
Her second mission was aboard Columbia (STS-50) as mission specialist in June-July 1992. It was the first flight of the US Microgravity Laboratory 1.
Her third and final mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-71) as mission specialist in June-July 1995. It was the first Space Shuttle docking to the space station Mir.
Lonnie Johnson, born October 6, 1949 in Mobile, Alabama, is a NASA scientist and entrepreneur. Although he owns a number of patents for his work developing a nuclear power source for the Galileo probe to Jupiter, and the stealth bomber program, he is more famous for inventing the Super Soaker. The Super Soaker first appeared in 1990 and in November 2013, after months of litigation, he was awarded almost $73M from Hasbro.
Galileo spacecraft, launched October 18, 1989, ended its mission when NASA sent it plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere, September 21, 2003. It flew by Venus in February 1990 and flew by Earth in December 1990 and approached asteroid 951 Gaspra in October 1991. It made a second flyby of Earth in December 1992 before making close observations of another asteroid Ida. It discovered Ida's moon Dactyl, the first time a moon orbiting an asteroid had ever been seen.
Galileo observed fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash into Jupiter. Besides examining Jupiter, it made several flybys of moons Europa and Io.
NASA turned off Galileo's cameras in January 2002, since they had been permanently damaged by radiation. They were able to recover scientific data from a damaged tape recorder and received measurements of the moon Amalthea, before taking its final plunge.
A truly, campy, cheesy movie Fire Maidens of Outer Space hit US movie theaters September 6, 1956. It is one of the perfect victims for Joel and the bots to skewer on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
A group of men exploring the 13th moon of Jupiter find it to be forested and discover the last remnants of Atlantis, an old man with a bevy of young, beautiful women and a monster. The women are desperate for husbands and the old man is trying to get them married off to keep the colony alive. But there is that pesky monster to contend with.
It has been described as one of the worst movies ever!
Juno, launched August 5, 2011, is currently orbiting Jupiter sending back tons of data on the largest planet in our solar system. It reached Jupiter in July 2016 and its mission has been extended into July 2021.
Juno is the first probe to use solar panels instead of radioisotopoe thermoelectric generators (RTG) used by previous missions.
It also carries a plaque dedicated to Galileo Galilei, provided by the Italian Space Agency.
Adrastea, discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 2 July 8, 1979, is the small of the inner four moons of Jupiter. It is the first natural moon to be discovered by images taken by a spacecraft, instead of a telescope. Two more inner moons Thebe and Metis were discovered in images taken by Voyager 1 a few months earlier.
It has a strange shape, measuring 20x16x14 km across. It orbits Jupiter every 7 hours.
2010, the movie adaption of Arthur C. Clarke's sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, was released December 7, 1984. The subtitle for 2010 was "The Year We Make Contact". It starred Roy Scheider, Dame Helen Mirren and John Lithgow. Keir Dullea reprised his role as David Bowman from 2001. Douglas Rains reprised his role as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer.
The movie is about a joint venture between the Soviet Union and the United States on a journey to Jupiter. They find a huge monolith, like the ones in 2001, orbiting Jupiter.
It was nominated for 5 Oscars. It won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Voyager 1, launched September 5, 1977, was the fist man-made object to cross into interstellar space. It was launched 16 days after Voyager 2 and flew by Jupiter in March 1979.
It made a flyby of Saturn in November 1980, including an encounter with Titan.
NASA still receives signals from both Voyager craft, but Voyager 1 might run out of fuel by 2025.
Donald Williams, born February 13, 1942, was a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He earned his Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering and received a commission through the Naval ROTC both from Purdue University.
His first flight was on Discovery (STS-51-D) as pilot in April 1985. During the mission, he became the first person to juggle in microgravity!
His second and final flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-34) as commander in October 1989. The Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter was deployed during this mission.
Pioneer 11, interplanetary probe, was launched by NASA April 6, 1973. It studied the asteroid belt, Jupiter and Saturn. Pioneer 11 passed through the asteroid belt in April 1974 and encountered Jupiter December 3, 1974.
It flew by Saturn September 1, 1979, becoming the first probe to encounter the planet. It passed beyond the orbit of the planets on February 23, 1990, making it the fourth man-made object to do so. The last meaningful data received was on November 24, 1995. In 2002, its signal became too faint to detect.
The spacecraft Dawn arrived at the minor planet Ceres March 6, 2015. Launched September 27, 2007, Dawn made a flyby of Mars on its way to the asteroid belt, arriving at the minor planet Vesta July 6, 2011. After a 14 month study, Dawn headed toward Ceres, the largest object between Mars and Jupiter. Right away, Dawn started sending back stunning pictures of the minor planet, showing mysterious bright spots on the surface.
Dawn will continue to study Ceres until its fuel runs out later this year. It will remain in a stable orbit around the minor planet.
Taking advantage of a rare alignment of the outer planets, NASA launched Pioneer 10 March 2, 1972. NASA started preparing for the mission in 1964 and created two spacecraft, Pioneer F and Pioneer G. Later they were renamed Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11.
On November 8, 1973, Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Sinope, an outer moon of Jupiter and made its closest approach to the planet December 3. The electron radiation around Jupiter caused false commands to be made but many were corrected by contingency commands. An image of Io and some close-up pictures of Jupiter were lost but the spacecraft obtained pictures of Ganymede and Europa.
On its way out of the solar system, Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Saturn in 1976, the orbit of Uranus in 1979, and the orbit of Neptune in 1983. It is the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.
The mission officially ended March 31, 1997 but the Deep Space Network kept track of its signal until January 23, 2003 when Pioneer 10 sent its last signal.
Pioneer 10, launched March 2, 1972, made its closest approach to Jupiter December 4, 1973. It was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and encounter the biggest planet in our solar system. Pioneer 10 passed within 81,000 miles of the cloud tops of Jupiter. It took measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere, radiation belts, magnetic field and atmosphere. These measurements helped in the design of the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft.
Just before 8am EDT today, Cassini, the spacecraft sent to study Saturn and her moons, sent her last signal. She plunged into the Saturnian atmosphere to end a massively successful mission. Launched October 15, 1997, she spent Cassini spent 7 years en route and arrived at Saturn in 2004. For 13 years, she has explored the gas giant and released the Huygens probe from the ESA to land on Titan, a first for a celestial body in the outer solar system.
Cassini did flybys of Jupiter, our moon and Asteroid 2685 Masursky. She discovered new moons Methone, Pallene, Polydeucesin, Daphnis, Anthe, Aegaeon and S/2009 S 1. I'm sure they will find a better name for the last one.
She also performed flybys of moons Titan, Phoebe, Enceladus, Iapetus, Rhea, Hyperion and Dione.
Seventeen countries joined together in this effort.
Fourteen years ago, January 23, 2003, Pioneer 10 sent its last signal received by Earth. Launched March 3, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first to encounter Jupiter, up close and personal, reaching the gas giant December 3, 1973.
It continued broadcasting at a whopping rate of 256 bits/second, which degraded to 127 millibits/second. When it was approximately 12 billion light-years (80 astronomical units) from Earth, its power fell below the level where it could send signals strong enough to be received. Now it is estimated to be 116 AU from Earth.
October 6, 1995, European scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the discovery of a planet orbiting another star. Planet 51 Pegasi b is about half the size of Jupiter and a "year" is just four Earth days. And it orbits its sun 51 Pegasi at a distance of 0.05 AU (astronomical units) which is about 1/6 the distance between Mercury and our sun. That means the surface temperature is around a sultry 2-3000 Kelvin.
In the 21 years since, over 1800 exoplanets have been discovered, including (perhaps) Tatooine, Vulcan and Krypton.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, discovered in March 1993, by amateur astronomers, first impacted Jupiter July 16, 1994. It was orbiting the giant planet and had been torn apart probably in 1992, when Jupiter's gravity tore it apart.
Twenty-one fragments struck the planet over the next 6 days. The largest came on July 18.
