Media Gallery : Earth Flyby

Juno's Wobbly Radio Signal

The squiggly line pictured here is not a DNA molecule or bacterium. It is the radio signal from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, detected by French amateur radio astronomer Bertrand Pinel on Oct. 24, 2013.

The signal’s wavy pattern is due to the spacecraft’s rotation, as the Medium Gain Antenna, or MGA, rotates around Juno’s spin axis twice per minute. The antenna is located slightly off center from the large, dish-shaped High Gain Antenna. Also note that the wavy pattern is not straight up and down -- the slant being due to the Doppler shift inherent from Juno’s motion away from Earth. Extremely precise tracking of this Doppler shift by NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas will allow scientists to create a map of Jupiter’s gravity field, once the spacecraft arrives at the giant planet in 2016.

Juno was more than 8 million miles (13 million kilometers) away from Earth, following its Oct. 9th flyby, when Pinel acquired this signal using his 3.5-meter radio dish.

Bertrand Pinel
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Juno flyby from South Africa

This image shows NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its Earth flyby, just minutes before it slipped into the planet’s shadow. The image was taken by Greg Roberts, near Cape Town, South Africa on Oct. 9, 2013 at 19:16 UTC. The spacecraft is the point-like object near center; the linear streaks are background stars. The dark shape across the lower left corner is the roof of the observer’s house.

Greg Roberts

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Juno Flyby from South Africa (Movie)

Greg Roberts, a retired professional astronomer, captured this sequence of images of Juno's flyby pass from his home near Cape Town just before Juno disappeared into Earth's shadow. The dark feature in the lower portion of the image is the roof of the observer's home. (An empty black frame has been inserted to transition between the two sets of images seen here.)

Greg Roberts

Juno flyby from South Africa II

NASA’s Juno spacecraft appears as a faint streak in this ground-based telescope image, captured during the mission’s Earth flyby encounter. The image was taken by Greg Roberts, near Cape Town, South Africa at on Oct. 9, 2013 at 19:18 UTC.

The streak is fainter at left – a characteristic which the observer attributes to variability in the spinning spacecraft’s brightness during the exposure. Roberts notes that the dimming is not due to Juno entering Earths shadow, because he obtained another streak-like image of Juno after this exposure, and the image was taken more than a minute before Juno was predicted to fall into shadow.

The view looks toward stars in the southern constellation Circinus, which is the Latin word for “compass.”

Greg Roberts Download

Juno flyby from England (video)

A couple of hours after Juno passed by Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, British observer Nick James used an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope to obtain this sequence of five-second exposures, showing the spacecraft moving against the background stars.

Nick James

Juno flyby from England

A couple of hours after Juno passed by Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, British observer Nick James obtained this image, showing the spacecraft as a faint streak between two white marks.

Nick James
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Juno flyby from L’Aquila, Italy

Observers P. Berardi and M.G. Raschiatore at Bellavista Observatory in L’Aquila, Italy captured the Juno spacecraft’s departure from Earth following its close flyby on Oct. 9, 2013 in a series of 26 exposures.

P. Berardi and M.G. Raschiatore
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Juno flyby from Australia (video)

This movie sequence was obtained by students in the 7th and 8th grade Gifted and Talented program at Yarra Valley Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia. The video shows NASA's Juno spacecraft streaking across the stars following its close flyby with Earth on Oct. 9, 2013 (UT).

Yarra Valley Grammar

Juno flyby from England II

NASA’s Juno spacecraft appears as a faint streak amongst the stars in this 65-second exposure, taken by observer Dave Eagle. Eagle acquired the image from Higham Ferrers, UK.

Dave Eagle
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Juno flyby from Spain

Juno streaks across the starry background following its Earth flyby. Brightness has been inverted in this image – a technique that can help to make faint objects easier to detect. The image was acquired remotely by a trio of Italian observers using the AstroCamp Observatory, Nerpio, Spain.

Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and Martino Nicolini
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Juno flyby from Sicily

Italian observer Giuseppe Pappa obtained this image showing Juno as a faint streak. The image was obtained from Sicily using a DSLR camera.

Giuseppe Pappa Download

Juno flyby from the Isle of Man

Observer Dave Storey obtained this image of the Juno spacecraft as it departed Earth following its close flyby on Oct. 9, 2013. Storey used a 16” Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope to acquire the view. The spacecraft is the single, point-like object just left of center; the diagonal trails in the image are background stars.

Dave Storey Download

Juno flyby from France

Three and a half hours after Juno passed by Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, French observer Emmanuel Conseil captured a faint image of the spacecraft. Juno appears as a faint streak here, to the left of the bright star labeled "TYC 2385-695-1," which is in the constellation Perseus. Conseil imaged the spacecraft at a time when its forecast magnitude was 13.8, which is about 800 times fainter than can be seen by the unaided eye.

Emmanuel Conseil Download