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Space probes · Jupiter

Where is the Juno spacecraft right now?

The Juno spacecraft, a small body with three long solar arrays, drawn from its model in Exo-View

Juno is a NASA spacecraft that has been going round Jupiter since July 2016, in a long loop that takes it close over the poles and out again every 53 days. It is powered by sunlight, from three huge solar panels, even this far from the Sun. Exo-View shows where it is today and lets you fly to it.

Fly to JunoSee Jupiter
Launched
5 August 2011
Arrived
4 July 2016
Orbit
Round Jupiter over the poles, once every 53 days
Power
Three solar arrays, each about 9 m long
Mass
3,625 kg
Named for
The Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter, who could see through the clouds

Looking under the clouds

Juno's instruments see through Jupiter's clouds to measure how deep the bands go, how the planet's gravity and magnetic field are arranged, and how much water is in its air. It found that the storms and bands reach far down, that the planet has a fuzzy, dilute core rather than a hard one, and that each pole is circled by a ring of huge, steady cyclones.

Pictures for everyone

Its camera, JunoCam, was designed for the public: the raw images are put online, and amateurs around the world choose where to point it and process the results. Juno also made close passes of Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon, in 2023 and 2024. It carries three small Lego figures, of Galileo, of Jupiter and of Juno holding a magnifying glass.

In Exo-View

The button below flies from the Sun to Juno, near Jupiter. Open its plate for its distance from the Earth and its speed. Its place is taken from NASA's Horizons system, and like all the positions here is approximate.

Fly to JunoSee Jupiter

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