Farewell Earth: ESA's JUICE takes first selfies with home planet en route to Jupiter
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It's not every day that we can see our beautiful blue world through the lens of a spacecraft in the darkness of space. The recently launched JUICE mission captured some stunning images of its home planet shortly after embarking on its eight-year journey to Jupiter.
The first batch of images was captured soon after the mission launch on Friday, April 14. JUICE, or Jupiter ICy moons Explore is a mission of the European Space Agency(ESA). The spacecraft was launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on an Ariane-5 rocket.
One of the first images taken showed the spacecraft's solar array being unfurled in dark space. Another image showed the spacecraft partially blocking JUICE's view of Earth. All of these images were processed and slightly color corrected to make them more appealing to viewers.
JUICE's cameras will be operational during the Moon, Earth, and Venus gravity assist flybys
According to ESA, the images were taken to test the space probe's monitoring cameras, which generate 1024 by 1024-pixel snapshots. The spacecraft's cameras have been specifically outfitted to capture various stages and developments of this historic mission. These cameras will also be operational during the Moon, Earth, and Venus gravity assist flybys.
While one monitoring camera is mounted on the spacecraft's front side, the second camera is placed on top of the spacecraft. In the coming days, the latter will record the unfolding of the probe's Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, which is 52 feet (16 meters) long. These radar antennas were designed specifically to penetrate and investigate beneath the icy surface of the moons.
These, however, are merely monitoring cameras, whereas the scientific ones are more sophisticatedly designed to capture high-resolution photography of the planet and its moon in 2031.
The ambitious JUICE mission will explore and study Jupiter’s ocean-bearing moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. “Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation, and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe,” as per the ESA statement.
The spacecraft is outfitted with specialized tools such as remote sensing, geophysical, and other in situ instruments.
The scientific community is thrilled with the mission's successful launch. It will be exciting to see what incredible images and discoveries this mission will make in the coming months and years.
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