The next close approach will take Juno within 2,600 miles (4,200 km) of the planet's cloud tops. This pass should return the first real scientific bounty of the mission. Remember Juno's instruments were off on July 4, to reduce complications during that day's pivotal orbit-insertion burn, but they will be operating on Aug. 27.
Juno will conduct another 53-day orbit after the Aug. 27 close approach. Then, in October, the probe will perform one more engine burn to shift into a 14-day orbit. At which point, the probe's science mission will officially begin. Juno will loop around Jupiter more than 30 times, observing the gas giant with its suite of science instruments. The mission is scheduled to end in February 2018 with an intentional death dive into Jupiter's thick atmosphere. "For five years, we've been focused on getting to Jupiter. Now we're there, and we're concentrating on beginning dozens of flybys of Jupiter to get the science we're after," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in the same statement.
The Yukon Astronomical Society will, once again, host a FREE open to the public event on the mission to Jupiter from the Yukon College. On Saturday the 27th of August 2016, meeting room to be announced (we hope A2402), and we will, once again, link to the Eyes on the Solar System module dedicated to the Juno mission to Jupiter. In this online, interactive visualization, we can ride along with the Juno spacecraft, in real-time, using the classroom's Smart Board.
Also, the Perseid Meteor shower will be extra awesome this year NASA says. Shooting-star seekers heading out to watch the Perseid meteor shower Aug. 11 and 12 (between 1 and 2 am in the Yukon) may see a much better show than in past years. That's because the Earth will collide with more material than usual from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which is the source of the Perseids. Jupiter's gravity has tugged the debris stream in such a way that Earth will move closer to the middle of the stream, rather than the edge, NASA officials said in a statement.
In fact, Earth may collide with three or more streams during the shower this year. This could result in double the usual rate of meteors, and a spectacular rate of 200 meteors per hour under perfect conditions, according to the statement.
Please forward to anyone whom you feel will be interested.
Reference Material:
- < >Here's how and when to see the Perseids: http://www.space.com/32868-perseid-meteor-shower-guide.html
- http://www.space.com/32868-perseid-meteor-shower-guide.html#ooid=J0aW8yNTE68y-126SLbyxVb9om14I_r5
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