Spacecraft zooms by the moon, captures sci-fi footage

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Spacecraft zooms by the moon, captures sci-fi footage

A spacecraft just sped between Earth and the

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, en route to the deep

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.

And as it zipped by the

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on Aug. 19, the ********* Space Agency’s

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snapped views of the 21st-century

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scene.

“Sometimes the journey is just as worthy as the destination,” ESA director Josef Aschbacher

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. “As humankind embarked on the monumental first lunar-Earth flyby, @ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission captured a breathtaking glimpse of our natural satellite.”

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Mission planners sent the craft by

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and the moon to exploit our gravity as it slingshots through

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. It will fly by Venus and Earth twice more, picking up speed as it escapes to the distant, icy solar system. Juice is expected to arrive at

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in 2031, where it will swoop by 35 of the gas giant’s

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.

The images from the mission’s monitoring cameras show the spacecraft, with its antennae and instruments, in the foreground of the moon vistas.

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The Juice spacecraft as it flies by the moon for a gravity assist.

The Juice spacecraft as it flies by the moon for a gravity assist. Credit: ESA / Juice / JMC // Acknowledgement: Simeon Schmauß and Mark McCaughrean (image processing)

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Part of the Juice spacecraft’s solar panels and booms in the foreground; the moon is seen on left in the background.

Part of the Juice spacecraft’s solar panels and booms in the foreground; the moon is seen on left in the background. Credit: ESA / Juice / JMC // Acknowledgement: Simeon Schmauß and Mark McCaughrean (image processing)

After the successful lunar flyby, Juice will now venture by Earth on Aug. 20.

The spacecraft is shielded from the extreme radiation present around Jupiter, similar to

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‘s Juno spacecraft. But Juice is *******. It wields two large cross-shaped solar panels, the biggest ever built for an interplanetary mission, ESA explains. That’s because solar radiation at distant Jupiter, which is on average 484 million miles from the

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, is 25 times weaker than on our planet.

“This makes JUICE the largest ‘solar power plant’ in the Solar System,” ESA wrote. It’s a whopping 71 feet (21.7 meters) wide.

The mission will scrutinize worlds like

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, an ice-blanketed moon suspected to harbor a voluminous sea beneath its ice shell, as well as the large moons Ganymede and Callisto. They’re not just planetary objects, ESA emphasizes. They’re “possible habitats.”

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#Spacecraft #zooms #moon #captures #scifi #footage

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