On Monday, June 7, 2021, at 7:35 pm, the Juno probe will make a low-level flight over the Ganymede satellite, just 1038 km from its surface. For the first time since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 2000. Thus Juno confirms his good health (Read the monthly journal Sciences et Avenir No. 892 pp. 40-43) It provides a unique view on the largest satellite in the entire solar system (with a diameter of 5,262 km exceeding the planet Mercury), and one of the most fascinating …

Clean snow and dirty snow

About three hours before the flyby, the probe will point its instruments at Ganymede in order to study the satellite’s icy surface, in particular its temperature and composition.“The ice crust has both light areas and dark areas, indicating that some of it is pure ice, and some is ice contaminated with dust., explains on الويب’s website NASA Scott Bolton, Chief of Mission. Thanks to the Juno radiometer, we will have the first study on the composition and structure of ice as a function of depth. This will lead us to a better understanding of how this crust forms, and further repair.” The in-depth analysis became even more interesting as Galileo’s flybys revealed that under this crust hides an ocean of salt water…

Meeting at 68000 km/h

The probe will also study Ganymede’s magnetosphere, a type of bubbles made up of electrically charged particles, created by the star’s magnetic field. Ganymede is actually the only satellite in the solar system that possesses a magnetic field. As for the image sequence, it will last about 25 minutes, when the Ganymede probe is flying at a speed of more than 68000 km / h! According to the mission’s engineers, this will only leave enough time to take about 5 shots… Thus, Juno will pave the way for the European Juice mission scheduled for launch in 2022. Scheduled to arrive near Jupiter in 2030, it will be operational. Orbit It orbited Ganymede in 2032, becoming the first probe to orbit a moon in the solar system.