Leicester prepares for Junos arrival at Jupiter

4 July will see the arrival of the NASA spacecraft Juno at Jupiter where soon after it will begin its orbit insertion manoeuvre of the giant planet. A team of international scientists, including a team from our Department of Physics and Astronomy, have been involved in the development of the craft and will be using Juno to conduct their own research on Jupiter.

Europlanet, which links research institutions and companies active in planetary research in Europe and around the world, has highlighted European contributions to the mission and the UK's role in the science team.

The University of Leicester is home to the only formal UK science lead for the Juno mission, NASA's programme to study our solar system's largest planet, Jupiter. Planetary scientists and astronomers from our Department of Physics and Astronomy will be studying the gas giant's magnetosphere, dynamic atmosphere and its beautiful polar auroras throughout the duration of the mission.

They have also coordinated HST observations of the effect of the solar wind on Jupiter’s auroras during Juno’s cruise phase to the giant planet.

Watch video interviews with Professor Stan Cowley and Professor Emma Bunce about Juno:

A new microsite details the University’s involvement in Juno, including the research that scientists here at Leicester will be undertaking with data from the spacecraft. Throughout the mission you will find the latest news, press releases and multimedia from our Juno related work.