Juno Probe Carrying 'Lego Galileo' Nears Jupiter

NASA has released a new image of Jupiter as the Juno spacecraft edges close to the giant gas planet.

The robotic explorer is due to reach the planet on 4 July after a five-year, 1.4 billion-mile journey from Earth.

On 11 June, the robotic explorer began sending and receiving data around the clock to and from Earth as it prepares for the completion of its journey, NASA said on its website.

One image, obtained from Juno on 21 June, showed Jupiter from a distance of 6.8 million miles.

By June 24, the spacecraft was 5.5 million miles from its destination.

No previous spacecraft has orbited so close to Jupiter, although two others have been sent plunging to their destruction through its atmosphere.

Juno is due to spend a year in orbit around Jupiter, measuring the planet's water content, mapping its magnetic fields and searching for signs of a solid core.

With more than twice the mass of all its sibling planets combined, Jupiter is believed to hold a key piece to the puzzle of how the planets formed some 4.65 billion years ago from the gas and dust left over after the birth of the sun.

Juno is carrying three Lego figures depicting the 17th century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter, and the deity's wife Juno.

Lego made the figures out of aluminium rather than the usual plastic so they could withstand the extreme conditions of space flight.

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