Even as NASA's Juno spacecraft approached the giant planet closer than any spacecraft, it managed to collect a number of beautiful images as well as information about Jupiter.
It was five years ago that the mission was launched, which made it travel for 1.8 billion miles from our planet, in order to touch Jupiter's orbit.
It was an awesome feat when Juno approached Jupiter just 2,600 miles above Jupiter's swirling clouds. This was about the distance between New York and Los Angeles. It was also the closest to Jupiter that any spacecraft has ever flown. The feat was extremely difficult to coordinate.
This was the first of 36 planned orbital flybys, NASA said. "Soaring at 130,000 miles per hour (208,000 kilometers per hour), it was the nearest the spacecraft will get to Jupiter during its main mission, which should end in February 2018."
Jupiter's radiation belts complicated the Juno mission further. Juno carries a number of scientific instruments that can assess various elements of the planet. They can also measure the gas giant's "composition, gravity, magnetic field, and the source of its 384 mile-per-hour winds."
In order to prevent complications from Jupiter's radiation belts, the instruments were turned off when Juno chanced upon Jupiter's orbit on July 4. Hence, Juno finished only one of its 36 orbital flybys.
Experts all over the world are waiting eagerly to download and see the photographs on Jupiter's north and south poles. However, it is expected to take days for the images to get downloaded to mission control. Scientists around the world are anxiously waiting to see what the spacecraft digs up.
Juno carries some unusual baggage too. It transported Titanium Lego models of Galileo Galilei, the goddess Juno and her husband, Jupiter. They were included inside the spacecraft along with a plaque dedicated to Galileo.
The images may be awesome but you can rest assured that they may not come back!
