NASA’s Juno mission halfway to Jupiter science

Tech Explorist
Launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. It then started collecting data in earnest on Aug. 27, 2016. During these flybys, Juno’s suite of sensitive science instruments probes beneath the planet’s obscuring cloud cover and studies Jupiter’s auroras to learn more about the planet’s origins, interior structure, atmosphere, and magnetosphere.
Now, on Dec. 21, at 8:49:48 a.m. PST, the spacecraft will be 3,140 miles (5,053 kilometers).
above Jupiter’s cloud tops and hurtling by at a healthy clip of 128,802 mph.
This will be the 16th science pass of the gas giant and will mark the solar-powered spacecraft’s halfway point in data collection during its prime mission.