Juno at Jupiter
Jul. 5th, 2016 06:06 pmAfter some first looks at small worlds last year, it makes for a change to get back to a large world. I had started to pick up on the Juno probe's final approach to Jupiter after a nearly five-year journey from the covers of astronomy magazines, but something about the news pieces in the last days before arrival had me worried about close-in debris or just something else "going wrong," perhaps not with quite the same intensity as with New Horizons but still with concern. The crucial moments would happen at night; I checked first thing in the morning, and was pleased to see things had worked out during that first and apparently most hazardous close approach. Now, it's a matter of remembering to follow up and see just when the public outreach pictures start appearing; I remember hearing the onboard camera isn't expected to last very long in Jupiter's radiation.