High-resolution science camera Juice The probe, which is eventually heading to Jupiter, was busy taking pictures of craters on the Moon and clouds in Earth's atmosphere as the spacecraft flew past our planet To use our world's gravity to reroute itself to the next stop on its eight-year journey to the Jupiter system.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, also known as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is a European Space Agency mission to the gas planet. To be launched in April 2023The spacecraft's path to Jupiter is circuitous, however, with visits to Earth and Venus first. The purpose of those visits is to allow for gravity assists that help JUICE build up enough velocity to escape the inner planet. Solar system With minimal fuel left, it heads for a rendezvous with Jupiter in July 2031.
The first flyby of Earth took place on August 20, while JUICE had a close approach to the Moon the day before. we have seen the pictures The images were taken during the flight by JUICE's surveillance and navigation cameras – but now, ESA scientists have released the first images taken by the spacecraft's science camera, called JANUS.
JANUS is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Jovis, Amorum & Natorum Undique Scrutatorwhich translates to “Observer of Jupiter and all his loved ones and descendants” – Galilean of Jupiter Moon IO, Europa, Ganymede And Callisto They are all named after lovers of Zeus (Jupiter to the Romans) in Greek mythology.
Connected: Jupiter-bound JUICE spacecraft flies past Earth on its way to Venus (photo)
Indeed, once JUICE reaches the Jupiter system, it will closely examine Jupiter and its moons. So flying past Earth and our moon was an important test of JANUS' capabilities.
For example, the moon's airless surface presented a target with challenges not very different from those of the airless surfaces of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, whose surfaces JANUS is designed to map extensively. (Io is not on this list, partly because it is a volcanic moon rather than an icy ocean moon, and partly because it is so close to Jupiter that reaching a volcanic moon would be difficult – though JUICE's long-range instruments will monitor Io's erupting volcanoes).
When JUICE enters orbit around Ganymede in 2033, JANUS will be able to image the moon's icy surface at a resolution of 2.4 meters (7.87 feet) per pixel, far greater than any camera sent to the Jovian system before. It will literally be like mapping a new world. For reference, with a diameter of 5,268 kilometers (3,270 miles), Ganymede is even larger than Mercury,
Meanwhile, Earth's atmosphere provided a suitable test site for JANUS' ability to image clouds. When directed toward Jupiter's atmosphere, JANUS will be able to see details up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per pixel in vibrant cloud belts.
In addition, the imaging team didn't make it easy for JANUS during the Earth-Moon flyby. Great photographers take their time to line-up their shots and capture that perfect scene, but taking pictures from a distance from a spacecraft located between 741 million and 968 million kilometers (460 million and 601 million miles) from Earth in orbit around Jupiter is a different matter, and the imaging won't always be perfect. So, the imaging team intentionally blurred some of the images of Earth and the Moon to see how the camera's resolution recovery algorithms work to “de-blur” the images.
For other images, the team partially saturated the exposure to test how saturation affects the desaturated parts of the image. They also experimented with different camera settings and exposure lengths, and in general, really put JANUS through its paces. As we can see from these images, the camera and spacecraft passed the test with flying colors.
Now, the stage is set for the next leg of the long journey toward Jupiter. Passing by Earth changed JUICE’s trajectory, actually slowing it by a total of 5.7 kilometers (3.5 miles) per second and deflecting its path by 100 degrees, so that it is now headed toward Venus, from which it will receive a gravitational boost in August 2025. This encounter will then take JUICE back to meet up with Earth twice more, in September 2026 and January 2029, at which point it will receive its final boost toward Jupiter.