5 years after its launch, Juno spacecraft just days away from Jupiter

A photo taken by Juno of Jupiter and the surrounding area.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/NASAJuno)

After breezing through Jupiter's magnetosphere, NASA's Juno spacecraft is on track to begin orbiting the planet on the Fourth of July.

Juno was launched in August 2011, and over the next 18 months, the spacecraft is scheduled to circle around Jupiter more than 30 times, using nine different scientific instruments to gather data. NASA hopes to map out the planet's magnetic and gravitational fields and determine if it has a core or not, Space.com reports, and also gain new information about the universe as a whole. "What Juno's really about is learning about the recipe for how solar systems are made," Bolton said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.