This morning, NASA’s solar-powered spacecraft began its journey to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Juno is the first solar-powered probe designed to operate at Jupiter’s distance from the sun - nearly 500 million miles - where sunlight is 25 times weaker than that at Earth. As a result, Juno is equipped with three massive solar arrays that will power the journey. At Earth’s distance from the sun, the arrays would generate 14 kilowatts of power. At Jupiter’s distance, they will provide just 400 watts to power Juno’s science instruments and subsystems.
Check out this cool video of the launch:
