Jupiter Probe's Encouraging Signals and Successful Repairs
The JUICE spacecraft, on its way to Jupiter, has captured its first ultraviolet views of the cosmos, revealing a streak of the Milky Way filled with shining stars from the southern sky. The images, although not spectacular, indicate operational progress. The spacecraft's Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument collected its first set of data, confirming its performance. JUICE's mission is to study Jupiter's icy moons, suspected of harboring subsurface oceans and potentially habitable conditions. The UVS instrument, developed by the Southwest Research Institute, captures ultraviolet light to measure the concentrations of elements and molecules in the moons' atmospheres. JUICE is expected to reach the Jovian system in 2031.