14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at NASA have just released a new image of Earth, collected by a camera aboard the Juno spacecraft. The probe is currently heading towards the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, where it is scheduled to arrive in August 2016.
The purpose of Juno is to use its suite of 9 scientific instruments to investigate the gas giant in exquisite detail, over the course of 33 polar orbits. The mission may naturally extend for longer periods of time, depending on how the probe holds up. The NASA Cassini spacecraft around Saturn has been orbiting the gas giant since 2004.
Juno was launched from Earth nearly two and a half years ago, on August 5, 2011, from the SLC-41 pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida. The probe was boosted to orbit by an Atlas V delivery system, flying in the 551 configuration.
The flyby it carried around Earth this October was a gravity-assist maneuver, meant to boost its travel speed. During the pass, it collected this image of our planet, taken by the JunoCam instrument on October 9. NASA mission controllers took this image as part of an effort to test the integrity of the instrument.