Jupiter Exploration
While Jupiter has been known since ancient times, the first detailed observations of this planet were made by Galileo Galilei in 1610 with a small, homemade telescope. More recently, this planet has been visited by orbiters, probes, and by spacecraft passing by on their way to other worlds.
NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2 were the first to fly by Jupiter in the 1970s. Later, the Galileo spacecraft orbited the gas giant for almost eight years, and dropped a probe into its atmosphere. Cassini took detailed photos of Jupiter on its way to neighboring Saturn, as did New Horizons on its journey to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been studying Jupiter from orbit since July 2016. Europa Clipper will launch in October 2024 to study Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.
In orbit
Juno
Past missions
8
missions en route
ESA's Juice Spacecraft
Future Missions
Europa Clipper
Missions to Jupiter
This photo identifies the spacecraft's science instruments, which were used to study the atmospheric, surface and physical characteristics of Venus and Mercury. This was the sixth in the series of Mariner spacecraft that explored the inner planets beginning in 1962.NASA/JPLPioneer 10
NASA's first spacecraft to visit the outer planets, Pioneer 10 was designed as a 21-month mission to Jupiter, yet lasted more than 30 years. After its Jupiter encounter in 1973, it continued beyond the solar system, sending its last signal to Earth in January 2003 from a distance of 7.6 billion miles.
Jupiter as seen from above its north pole by Pioneer 11 in 1974.Pioneer 11
The sister spacecraft to Pioneer 10, it flew even closer to Jupiter in 1974 than its sibling had, passing while en route to its destination, Saturn. After studying the ringed planet, Pioneer 11 exited the solar system, and like its sibling carries a plaque with a message for any intelligent beings that may encounter it.
This is the original Voyager "Blue Movie" (so named because it was built from Blue filter images). It records the approach of Voyager 1 during a period of over 60 Jupiter days. Notice the difference in speed and direction of the various zones of the atmosphere. The interaction of the atmospheric clouds and storms shows how dynamic the Jovian atmosphere is. As Voyager 1 approached Jupiter in 1979, it took images of the planet at regular intervals. This sequence is made from 66 images taken once every Jupiter rotation period (about 10 hours). This time-lapse movie uses images taken every time Jupiter longitude 68W passed under the spacecraft. These images were acquired in the Blue filter from Jan. 6 to Feb. 3 1979. The spacecraft flew from 58 million kilometers to 31 million kilometers from Jupiter during that time. This time-lapse movie was produced at JPL by the Image Processing Laboratory in 1979.NASA/JPLVoyager 1
As it flew by Jupiter in March 1979, Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around the planet, two new moons, and active volcanoes on the volatile moon Io, before continuing on to Saturn and interstellar space.
This Voyager 2 image shows the region of Jupiter extending from the equator to the southern polar latitudes in the neighborhood of the Great Red Spot. A white oval, different from the one observed in a similar position at the time of the Voyager 1 encounter, is situated south of the Great Red Spot. The region of white clouds now extends from east of the red spot and around its northern boundary, preventing small cloud vortices from circling the feature. The disturbed region west of the red spot has also changed since the equivalent Voyager 1 image. It shows more small scale structure and cloud vortices being formed out of the wave structures. The picture was taken on July 3, 1979, from 3.72 million miles (6 million kilometers).NASA/JPLVoyager 2
Voyager 2 began transmitting images of Jupiter April 24, 1979, for time-lapse movies of atmospheric circulation. Unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2 made close passes to the Jovian moons on its way into the system, with scientists especially interested in more information from Europa and Io.
An active volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io was captured in this image taken on February 22, 2000 by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Tvashtar Catena, a chain of giant volcanic calderas centered at 60 degrees north, 120 degrees west, was the location of an energetic eruption caught in action in November 1999.NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaGalileo
During Galileo's 34 orbits of Jupiter, it gathered unprecedented data on the planet's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and evolution. It observed a comet crash into the planet, and also deployed a probe – the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter's atmosphere. And while studying Jupiter's moons, Galileo discovered evidence of a subsurface ocean on Europa, Ganymede's unique magnetic field, and unparalleled volcanic activity on Io.
This illustration depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft in orbit above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21770Juno
Juno has been In orbit around Jupiter since 2016. It's probing beneath the planet's dense clouds to answer questions about its origin and evolution, and is scheduled to continue investigating the solar system’s largest planet, its moons, faint rings, and surrounding environment through September 2025.
Europa Clipper: This artist’s rendering shows NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is being developed for launch in October 2024.NASA/JPL-CaltechEuropa Clipper
NASA's Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and reach the planet in 2030. During dozens of flybys, the spacecraft will investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa to determine whether there are places below the surface that could support life.
