Juno Spacecraft's July 4 Jupiter Arrival: What to Expect

This artist's illustration shows NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Juno spacecraft is scheduled to enter into orbit around JupiterMonday night (July 4), ending its nearly five-year trek to the solar system's biggest planet.

The key event Monday is a 35-minute engine burn at 11:18 p.m. EDT (0318 GMT on Tuesday), which is designed to slow Juno down enough to be captured by Jupiter's powerful gravity.

If something goes seriously wrong with this burn, the solar-powered Juno will zoom right past the gas giant, and the science goals of the $1.1 billion mission — which include mapping the gravitational and magnetic fields of Jupiter, and characterizing its internal structure — will go unachieved. [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter] 

Here's a primer on how Juno's highly anticipated Jupiter arrival should go down Monday night, along with a few notes about what to expect from the mission over the longer term.-read more