Jenam 2011PF trendJune 11, 2021 6:54:44 PM IST
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a close-up photograph of Ganymede, the moon of Jupiter. It was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew over the moon on June 7. The moon of the frozen planet can be seen through JunoCam’s green filter. The field of view of the JunoCam Imager is fixed and the spacecraft has a rotational speed of 2 rpm.
In order to capture Ganymede’s image, a tape was acquired by the camera when the target passed through his field of view. Thanks to the red, green and blue filters, separate images were captured. These bands were fixed in order to form a final colored image.
This image of the Jovian moon Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew over the frozen moon on June 7, 2021. Image credit: NASA
A preliminary photograph of the moon’s surface has been shared by NASA. The image captured an entire side of Ganymede. A NASA blog shares that the image resolution is one kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
With the captured image by JunoCam, another photo of Ganymede was clicked on by the Stellar Reference Unit’s camera. He captured the side of Ganymede which is sheltered from the sun.
This image of the dark side of Ganymede was obtained by the navigation camera of Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit during its flight over the moon on June 7, 2021.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI
Commenting on the development, Heidi Becker, Juno’s radiation monitoring manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said it would be fun to see what the two [JunoCam and Stellar Reference Unit] can replenish.
The JunoCam explored Ganymede up close about 21 years after the passage of NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. The Juno spacecraft approached within 1038 km (645 miles) of the the biggest moon in the solar system. Researchers aim to understand Ganymede’s magnetosphere, ice shell, composition, and ionosphere through Juno’s findings.
Ganymede is one of the 79 moons known to orbit Jupiter. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered the moon in 1610 when he also discovered three other larger moons of Jupiter. Ganymede is larger than Mercury and is the only moon to have a magnetic field.
