For the
first time in over two decades, Jupiter’s moon Ganymede – the largest in our solar
system – will be observed up and close with NASA’s Juno probe set to come
within a thousand kilometres of its surface.

NASA’s Juno
mission, which has been observing the Jupiter and its moons since 2016, will
come within 1,038 kilometres (645 miles) of Ganymede’s surface, the closest any
spacecraft has been to the moon since the Galileo probe approached it in May,
2000.

As part of
the latest expedition, Juno will capture images of Ganymede – which at 5,262 kilometres
(3,270 miles) is larger than the planet Mercury – as well as gather other data that will help scientists learn more about the moon’s composition.

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“Juno
carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways
never before possible,” CNN quoted Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator at
the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, as saying in a statement.

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“By flying
so close, we will bring the exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century, both
complementing future missions with our unique sensors and helping prepare for
the next generation of missions to the Jovian system — NASA’s Europa Clipper
and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission,”
the statement added.  

The moon,
which is named after a cupbearer to the Greek gods, is also the only moon to
have its own magnetic field, causing auroras to glow at its north and south
poles. It has a thick icy shell, which covers a layer of rock with an iron core
at its centre.

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Scientists
think there may be a subsurface ocean while astronomers have previously found
evidence of a thin oxygen atmosphere using the Hubble Telescope in 1996, though
not sufficiently thick to support life.

The ESA’s
JUICE mission will arrive in Ganymede in 2032 and will become the first probe
to orbit a moon other than Earth. It will also observe the moon’s icy shell.

The Juno
mission will, during its flyby on Monday, use three cameras to record as much
data as possible. It will particularly observe a high-energy radiation around
the moon. The flyby is expected to be a quick one, limiting the number of
images that can be taken and other observations that can be made.