On August 5th, 2011, NASA launched the space probe Juno. Named for the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter, the probe’s mission is similar to that of its namesake- to visit Jupiter and watch it closely to see what happens there.

The Juno probe, carrying equipment for measuring radiation, magnetic fields, gravity, and atmospheric makeup, entered Jupiter’s orbit just a few days ago. To make it over 300 million miles in so little time, Juno had to travel at a speed of 165,000 mph - nearly 100 times as fast as a bullet, and the fastest velocity at which a man-made object has ever traveled.

The probe may look small in illustrations, but it is actually nearly the size of a basketball court including its three large solar panels, and it weighs nearly 4 tons. For something being launched into space, Juno is pretty big. So big in fact, that an Atlas V rocket, one of NASA’s largest rockets, was required to launch it. Still, even a 205-foot, 1,294,113-pound rocket is tiny in comparison to Juno’s new home- the colossal gas giant Jupiter.

Jupiter is known for its turbulent weather, including its famous “red spot”- a storm twice as wide as earth that has been raging for at least 150 years. Although many of the storms on Jupiter have been present for a very long time, we still have not been able to observe them particularly closely, so we have not been able to determine what makes these storms so powerful- until now, that is. The Juno probe will study Jupiter’s atmospheric makeup in detail, which will help us learn more about what drives these massive storms. Juno will also bring us new information on Jupiter’s surface, where scientists have speculated that there is a liquid hydrogen ocean, and will take measurements of Jupiter’s core, which will help us gain a better understanding of what Jupiter is made of and how it formed.

Many current theories suggest that Jupiter, and other gas giants, have solid cores that were able to pull away hydrogen and helium left over from the birth of the stars they formed around. However, no one can say with certainty what the exact contents of these solid cores are. Because the amounts of certain metals vary by location in a galaxy, knowledge of Jupiter’s core’s contents can tell us where it may have formed.

This is especially important because many other Jupiter-sized planets outside of our solar system tend to form far from their stars and eventually move inward, destroying smaller planets or even throwing them out of the star system with their gravitational pulls. However, our solar system’s Jupiter has a much more circular orbit, and does not come close enough to smaller planets to do this.

Jupiter can still pull in smaller bodies, though, which helps protect the other planets in our solar system from asteroids or space debris. When our solar system was young, Jupiter absorbed or redirected most of the “junk” in our solar system that could have collided with smaller planets. If this had not happened, Earth would still be hit with a barrage of space debris every day, making it impossible to live on.

If we can find out what it is about Jupiter that makes it behave so unusually for a planet of its size, we may be able to look for similar patterns in other star systems. If we can find another Jupiter like our own, there is a possibility that a planet much like Earth may be close to it- and may even be harboring life.