Science

NASA Returns to Jupiter

Sends $1.1B probe to orbit planet.

The human spaceflight program might be over, but NASA is still gathering data about the solar system. Today the space agency sends a probe to orbit Jupiter, the first since Galileo was shot into the planet's atmosphere 16 years ago. The $1.1 billion probe, Juno, will arrive at the planet on July 4, 2016, and orbit for a year, gathering data on the gas giant's gravity, magnetic fields, and presence of water. “If you want to understand that first step of how you went from forming a sun to forming the planets,” said the mission's principal investigator, “you have to understand what went into Jupiter and how it was made.”