PASADENA, California — solar-powered spacecraft is circling Jupiter on a mission to map the giant planet from the inside out.
NASA mission control received a radio signal Monday night from the Juno spacecraft confirming that it’s in orbit around the biggest planet in the solar system.
Because Juno’s camera and other instruments were turned off during the highly anticipated arrival, there won’t be pictures of the key moment.
The trip took nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers). Juno is the first spacecraft to venture so far from Earth powered by the sun.
It’ll spend 20 months circling Jupiter’s poles, peering through thick clouds and studying the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields.