Juno captures first photo from Jupiter orbit

The view of Jupiter and three of its moons, as captured by the Juno spacecraft.

(Image credit: Twitter.com/NASAJuno)

The camera aboard the Juno spacecraft has sent back a clear photo of Jupiter and three of its moons, and NASA promises even better pictures are yet to come.

The image was taken at 10:30 a.m. PDT on July 10, when the spacecraft was 2.7 million miles from Jupiter on the outbound leg of its first orbit, NASA says. It shows the Great Red Spot and the Io, Europa, and Ganymede moons. Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4, and the camera — a color, visible-light camera designed to capture poles and cloud tops — was turned on six days after the spacecraft fired its main engine.

Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, says the image is proof the JunoCam "survived its first pass through Jupiter's extreme radiation environment without any degradation and is ready to take on Jupiter. We can't wait to see the first view of Jupiter's poles." NASA says the first high-resolution images will be taken on August 27, when Juno makes its next close pass to Jupiter.

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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.