How To Be Part Of NASA's Juno Mission To Jupiter

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Jupiter's South Pole
Photo captured by the NASA's JunoCam, Enhanced by Donna Kaluzniak
On December 21, 2018, NASA's Juno spacecraft will mark its halfway point for collecting data on the planet Jupiter. Juno is soaring over Jupiter's clouds in an elliptical orbit around the north and south poles.

Juno was launched August 5, 2011 and reached Jupiter on July 4, 2016. The goal is to discover more about the planet's structure, origins, atmosphere, and magnetic fields. Juno's already provided a first photo of Jupiter's ring, and scientific data on its radiation belts.

But what makes this mission so special to me is the JunoCam Community. 

The JunoCam community encourages the public to actively participate in this mission!

Yes, you can take part in this historic, scientific, and extremely cool project. The JunoCam website gives you all the information you need to participate in planning, discussion, decision making, image processing, and analysis.

As part of planning, amateur astronomers are invited to upload their data and telescopic photos of Jupiter to provide context for new JunoCam images.

Discussion will be ongoing throughout the project. Anyone can ask questions or discuss the information obtained to date.

Are you an artist or photographer? Raw images from the JunoCam are posted on the website. You can download them and do your own image processing--anything from color enhancement and cropping to abstract art. Several people highlighted a "dolphin" in the Jupiter clouds. If you wish, you can upload them to the website gallery. Gallery photos may be used in scientific papers, journals, and websites with proper attribution.
Jupiter's North Pole
Photo Captured by the JunoCam, Enhanced by Donna Kaluzniak

For those who want to explore the mission in more detail, there is the Think Tank--with engineering files and scientific discussion threads about particular images.

And when the mission is completed, a "Results" section will be added.

I've always had a keen interest in space, Maybe because I was around when the space program first started.

But even if you're not a space junkie, you can enjoy some of the beautiful artwork created by the JunoCam participants.

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