NASA Juno Spacecraft Sends First Photos of Jupiter

This color view from NASA's Juno spacecraft is made from some of the first images taken by JunoCam after the spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5 (UTC). (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)

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Juno is the name of the spacecraft made by NASA that is now orbiting Jupiter after a five-year journey.

NASA recently activated Juno's solar-powered camera to send images of Jupiter back to Earth.

Scott Bolton, left, and Rick Nybakken celebrate Juno starting its orbit of Jupiter.

NASA posted the first of what is expected to be many images of the solar system's largest planet earlier this week on Facebook.

And people have been sharing and liking these photos. Others leave comments on NASA's page about Juno.

Chrissa Hanna explained how Juno got its name. It honors the story of Jupiter and Juno in Roman mythology.

Jupiter was the most powerful god. He was married to Juno. But he had other lovers: Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede. Those are the names of Jupiter's moons.

In Roman mythology, Juno went to investigate Jupiter. Just like what NASA is doing now.

NASA thinks Jupiter is the oldest planet in the solar system. One of its goals is to see what lies beneath the swirling clouds that surround Jupiter. And Juno should be able to answer some questions about how Jupiter formed.

This July 10, 2016, image released by NASA was taken by the Juno spacecraft, five days after it arrived at Jupiter. The image shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot and three of its four largest moons.

The first photo shows Jupiter on the left, partly in shadow. Three moons can also be seen. One is Io, another is Europa and the third is Ganymede.

The photo was taken 2.7 million miles away from Jupiter. NASA promises better, higher-resolution images on August 27 when the spacecraft moves closer to Jupiter.

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I'm Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

Will you be following Juno's investigation of Jupiter? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

Words in This Story

resolution - n. the ability of a device to show an image clearly and with a lot of detail

solar - adj. of or relating to the sun; powered by the sun's light

swirling - adj. something that moves in circles

mythology - n. the legends or beliefs of a particular group or culture