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Mission: investigating Jupiter and Saturn, and the moons of these planets. Its continuing data feed offered the first direct measurements of the heliosheath and the heliopause. It is currently the furthest man-made object from Earth, as well as the first object to leave the heliosphere and cross into interstellar space.
first probe to cross the asteroid belt; first Jupiter probe; first man-made object on an interstellar trajectory; now in the outer regions of the Solar System but no longer contactable 1972-012A: Pioneer 11: NASA: 4 December 1974 flyby success went on to visit Saturn 1973-019A: Voyager 1: NASA: 5 March 1979 flyby success went on to visit Saturn ...
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) Jupiter and Ganymede: En route Mission to study Jupiter's three icy moons Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, eventually orbiting Ganymede as the first spacecraft to orbit a satellite of another planet. European Union: Euclid: Earth-Sun L 2 point: Operational: It is ESA's project for a space telescope to study dark ...
Pioneer 10 – launched in 1972, flew past Jupiter in 1973 and is heading in the direction of Aldebaran (65 light years away) in the constellation of Taurus.Contact was lost in January 2003, and it is estimated to have passed 134 astronomical units (AU; one AU is roughly the average distance between Earth and the Sun: 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)).
In both the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Jupiter was named after the chief god of the divine pantheon: Zeus to the Greeks and Jupiter to the Romans. [19] The International Astronomical Union formally adopted the name Jupiter for the planet in 1976 and has since named its newly discovered satellites for the god's lovers, favourites, and descendants. [20]
Observation of the spacecraft communications as it passed behind Jupiter would allow measurements of the planetary atmosphere, while tracking data would improve estimates of the mass of Jupiter and its moons. [6] NASA Ames Research Center, rather than Goddard, was selected to manage the project as part of the Pioneer program. [10]
Satellite systems are referred to either by the possessive adjectives of their primary (e.g. "Jovian system"), or less commonly by the name of their primary (e.g. "Jupiter system"). Where only one satellite is known, or it is a binary with a common centre of gravity, it may be referred to using the hyphenated names of the primary and major ...
The final gravity assist of the Parker Solar Probe mission occurred on November 6, 2024, which set the spacecraft on a new orbit passing 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from the surface of the Sun. [46] A beacon transmission was made and received successfully on December 20 to confirm that the craft was operating normally ahead of ...