The US space agency (NASA) participated on Monday The first images of the Juno spacecraft’s flight over Ganymede, the giant moon of Jupiter. it’s about Closest Pictures It wasn’t taken from this frozen moon, with details like Potholes, light and dark terrain and the long structural features they may be associated with Tectonic Faults.

“This is the closest spacecraft to this giant moon in an entire generation,” explains Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “We can simply marvel at this heavenly marvel: The only moon in our solar system is larger than Mercury“, Confirms.

The two images were taken on June 7 and took about two days to reach Earth. The first pictures were taken by the JunoCam photographer from the orbiter, Ganymede’s face appears almost completely بالكامل with a resolution of approximately 1 kilometer per pixel, depending on NASA reports in a statement. The photos were taken with a green filter, which means that We’ll have to wait To combine blue and red filters in You have a color picture.

The second published image was taken by Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit, a navigational camera that works to keep the spacecraft on its course. It Black and white photo of the far side of this moon, with a resolution of between 600 and 900 meters per pixel. Putting the two images together, NASA is confident they can Build a complete image of Ganymede.

Juno’s mission

The Juno spacecraft is an unmanned probe Solar powered. Designed to operate in the environment of Jupiter, it is the first spacecraft of its kind to travel several kilometers from Earth. probe It was launched in 2011 and took five years to arrive to your destination planet. Its mission, which ends next month, is to study Jupiter’s atmosphere and its magnetic and gravitational fields.

In the next few days, Juno will send more pictures to Earth From his flight from Ganymede. These raw photos will be posted On the mission page, in a portal named JunoCam.