Juno was launched on 5 August 2011 and entered orbit around Jupiter on 4 July 2016. It flies a long, stretched orbit that passes over the poles, skimming a few thousand kilometres above the cloud tops at each close approach. Its instruments look beneath the clouds to measure the water, the deep winds and the magnetic field of the largest planet, and its camera, JunoCam, sends pictures of swirling storms that anyone can process. Juno runs on sunlight even out at Jupiter, five times farther from the Sun than the Earth, with three solar panels nearly 9 m long. Because Juno orbits Jupiter, its distance from the Earth follows Jupiter’s.
Where is the Juno spacecraft?
Computing…
About Juno
- Agency
- NASA
- Launched
- 2011-08-05
- Status
- Active
Goals
Juno studies Jupiter to understand how the largest planet formed and evolved, since it kept much of the material of the early Solar System. From a polar orbit it measures Jupiter's gravity and magnetic field to probe its deep interior and core, and studies the water and ammonia of its atmosphere, its polar cyclones and its auroras. Its extended mission also observes the moons Ganymede, Europa and Io and the faint rings.
Today
Still operating in 2026: imaged the inner moon Thebe on 2026-05-01. Mission status was uncertain in late 2025 (FY2026 budget request zeroed it; first extension ended 2025-09-30). Wikipedia states a 3-year second extended mission began October 2025 (to ~September 2028) and that no deorbit is planned; NASA's mission page still shows the old 'through September 2025' text. No deliberate plunge into Jupiter is announced.
Questions and answers
How long does Juno take to orbit Jupiter?
About a month per orbit in its extended mission; most of that time is spent far from the planet.
What has Juno discovered?
Giant clusters of cyclones at Jupiter’s poles, a fuzzy core mixed with the rest of the planet and storms that reach hundreds of kilometres deep.
Where the numbers come from
Values refresh every second in your browser; the published data are checked every 10 minutes and updated several times a day.