Juno

In late September, NASA’s Juno probe swept by the Jovian moon Europa in the closest flyby for decades. A new image has now landed from this encounter that presents its fractured, icy crust in ultra-high resolution.

While NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured some stunning imagery and compelling data on Jupiter since entering orbit around the gas giant in 2016, it’s not the only celestial body in the probe’s sights, now revealing more about its moon, Europa.

The latest data from NASA's pioneering Juno probe has offered the most complete picture of Jupiter's famously colorful and chaotic atmosphere yet, producing what scientists call the first 3D picture of the Jovian atmosphere.

NASA's Juno deep-space probe has sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, to be captured in two decades. The stunning images were taken by the JunoCam and Stellar Reference Unit during Juno's flyby of the moon on June 7.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may be stealing energy from the smaller storms that careen into it on a regular basis. These dramatic interactions had previously seemed to be damaging the iconic atmospheric feature, but may instead be helping it survive.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will take a Cassini-like approach to exploring the Jovian system when it begins its latest mission extension in August this year at which point it will make passes of Jupiter’s rings and moons, and explore key surface features.

Space exploration in 2021 will see some major milestones to look forward to. From maiden flights to fiery endings, long-awaited launches to history-making first steps, here are some of the biggest upcoming events in space exploration this year.

Atmospheric phenomena known as "sprites" and "elves" may be illuminating the cloud layers of Jupiter, according to a newly published study. These short-lived light displays have been spotted on Earth manifesting above intense lightening storms.

Home to constant turbulent weather and the Great Red Spot – a storm bigger than Earth – Jupiter is the storm capital of the solar system. Now NASA’s Juno mission has discovered two new quirks of these storms – shallow lightning and “mushball” hail.

NASA has released the first images taken by its Juno deep-space probe of the north pole of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, which reveal that the Ganymedean polar region contains a glass-like form of ice formed by bombardment of solar particles.

Using what is known as the “lucky imaging” technique, scientists have created one of the sharpest infrared images of Jupiter ever taken from Earth, helping to reveal its weather systems, lightning and iconic Great Red Spot in exciting new detail.

In this series New Atlas profiles space probes, both past and present, tasked with pushing the boundaries of science by leading us into the great unknown. This week: a spacecraft built to unravel the mysteries hiding behind Jupiter's colorful clouds.