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Juno Probe To Get First Up-Close Look At Jupiter On Saturday (space.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the celestial-events dept.

NASA's Juno spacecraft will get its first up-close view at Jupiter this Saturday. Space.com reports: "At 8:51 a.m. EDT (1251 GMT) on Saturday (Aug. 27), Juno will zoom within 2,600 miles (4,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops -- closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission, NASA officials said. And Juno will have all of its science instruments during Saturday's flyby. This was not the case during the spacecraft's only previous close approach to Jupiter, which occurred July 4 when Juno arrived in orbit around the giant planet. During Saturday's close pass, all eight of Juno's science instruments will be collecting data, and the probe's visible-light imager, known as JunoCam, will take close-up photos." You can also look forward to Venus-Jupiter Conjunction 2016, an event happening on August 27 where Venus and Jupiter's respective orbits will bring the two planets the closest that they'll be to each other until 2065. The two planets will be positioned roughly five degrees above the Western horizon on August 27.

32 comments

  1. Exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    These up-skirt photos should be pretty exciting!

    1. Re:Exciting! by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 0

      You're obviously confusing with this Juno.

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    2. Re:Exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, *Juno* - your case worker.

    3. Re:Exciting! by Hylandr · · Score: 1

      You're obviously feeling a little 'flat' today.

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  2. Thanks again Slashdot editors by frovingslosh · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    The two planets will be positioned roughly five degrees above the Western horizon on August 27.

    What an amazing thing! The two planets will be five degrees above the western horizon the entire 24 hours, or at least all night. Us uneducated people would think that it was necessary to give a time when the planets would be in this exact position, but apparently that isn't necessary and just the date is enough.

    Of course, my question is why was "Western" capitalized?

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    1. Re: Thanks again Slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Capitalized for proper name cardinality.

    2. Re:Thanks again Slashdot editors by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

      Actually I thank them: for once we have both units, km and miles, and even GMT time (it's actually UTC, but, hey, let's not be too pedantic this time)

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    3. Re:Thanks again Slashdot editors by asylumx · · Score: 1

      They didn't mention the time because it depends where you are located. The article says the planets will be ~5 deg above horizon AT SUNSET and of course the sun sets at a different time depending where you are on the planet. It would have been nice if the summary had mentioned timing with the sunset, though.

      Also, Western is capitalized because it is the proper name of a direction.

    4. Re:Thanks again Slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, no. It's capitalised only when referring to the name of the region.

    5. Re:Thanks again Slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot editors get little credit for the space.com quote, all they did was to select it and not mess with it. frovingslosh is referring to the editor's own writings below.

    6. Re: Thanks again Slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Fail, nigger.

      https://www.proofreadnow.com/b...

    7. Re:Thanks again Slashdot editors by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      Seems to me that there are plenty of sites on the internet for uneducated people. It may be that many of those populating /. nowadays would be better served by those other sites.

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      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  3. 4,000 km by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2, Informative

    4,000 km is extremely close! Voyager 1's closest flyby was 349,000 km (Voyager 2 was 570,000 km). Sounds promising...

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    1. Re:4,000 km by Solandri · · Score: 1

      They should have Juno transmit "YEEEEEHAAAAA!!!!" during closest approach.

  4. unscheduled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Juno will zoom within 2,600 miles (4,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops -- closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission, NASA officials said."

    so this is an unscheduled approach? how much autonomy does Juno have?

    yeah, i know, nitpicking, but i am assuming someone gets paid to write this drivel.

    captcha: grammar

    1. Re:unscheduled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blame Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer. The NASA officials actually said "closer to the cloud tops of Jupiter than at any other time during its prime mission". It boggles the mind: Why would he misrepresent what someone said and risk a lawsuit for libel when all he had to do is copy-paste?

    2. Re:unscheduled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      you're a complete fucking moron. And a cunt.

    3. Re:unscheduled? by rossdee · · Score: 2

      It took advantage of a tail wind so it got closer thn it was expected to

  5. Ummm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission" - so, getting this close was unscheduled?

  6. GN5AA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Don't walk around aLl know we want. been many, not the FreeBSD continues aarogance was overly morbid and Surprise to the get tough. I hope Contact to see if

  7. entire mission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission

    This is not part of the mission? Lucky mistake that it is working out so well!

  8. I had a procedure yesterday, but what?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm still a a bit woosy from all of the doctor fun, but, what??

    Juno [is now] closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission,

    That sounds like the probe is out of control, if it's now closer than it's ever supposed to be. It's just weird phrasing here, right?? Or were they really NOT joking when they said no driving, no important decisions for 24 hours?

    Me: I'm just fIIIIne officer, I haven't had to much to drink today, rEEEEally. My, you're looking very fine and skinny today.
    Officer: Stop talking to the lamppost; I'm over here.

  9. DAMN! I hope Venus and Jupiter don't collide! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "You can also look forward to Venus-Jupiter Conjunction 2016, an event happening on August 27 where Venus and Jupiter's respective orbits will bring the two planets the closest that they'll be to each other until 2065."

    I suggest the author of this shit take a refresher course in astronomy. He'll discover that a conjunction has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the actual positions of the planets in the solar system.

  10. Who wrote this crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    And Juno will have all of its science instruments during Saturday's flyby.

    What 8 year old drop-out wrote this Crap?

    1. Re:Who wrote this crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously I offended the 8 year old drop-outs in the audience.

    2. Re:Who wrote this crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what German wrote that sentence with a capital letter for a noun?

  11. Closer than scheduled? by Dan+East · · Score: 2

    Juno will zoom within 2,600 miles (4,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops -- closer than the probe is scheduled to come during its entire mission

    Which makes it sound like it's not supposed to come that close to Jupiter. Obviously it is scheduled to come that close to Jupiter - the actual article says it's the "closest" it will come, not "closer" than it is scheduled to.

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    1. Re:Closer than scheduled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yawn, you started the 5th thread about this. Forum etiquette requires that you avoid redundant posts by reading every top-level post before starting a new one.

    2. Re:Closer than scheduled? by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      Thank you. I was surprised when I saw so few comments to this article. Then I started reading them and started to see why. Reading comprehension is just as "fail" today as is writing ability. I had zero problem interpreting the sentences, interpolating the necessary information to understand what is by definition a small, incomplete summary of an incredibly complex set of projects and tasks.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  12. HEY FBI WHY DONT WE PONDER SPACE AND PAUSE?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK FBI.

    Just stare into space while the rest of the stories on this page are all FBI related.

    Maybe FBI goes to another planet?

  13. All these worlds are yours... by zawarski · · Score: 1

    ...except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace.

  14. When is Uranus going to get a close up look? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Couldn't resist. Like well timed farts it never gets old.