From www.voanews.com
A U.S. spacecraft has taken the closest images of Jupiter since the Galileo probe perished in a programmed dive into the huge planet’s atmosphere four years ago. The spacecraft’s destination is icy, distant Pluto, but the U.S. space agency NASA wanted to fly close to Jupiter on the way out to get a scientific update and a speed boost.
NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft has been taking pictures of Jupiter since January and will continue to dispatch them through June, but the close pass more than two million kilometers away is giving astronomers another detailed look at the gas giant, its rings, and its four biggest moons.
The spacecraft will also become the first to take a trip down the long tail of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, a wide stream of charged particles extending tens of millions of kilometers.