AlHijjah 5, 1434, Oct 10, 2013, SPA -- A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft heading for Jupiter will swing by Earth on Wednesday to achieve the acceleration it needs to arrive at the giant gas planet in 2016. Using Earth as a gravitational slingshot is a common maneuver since there is not a rocket powerful enough to catapult a spacecraft directly to the outer solar system. Launched in 2011, the Juno spacecraft flew past Mars, the closest planet to Earth. It turned around and will make a quick pass by Earth to gather momentum to continue toward Jupiter, 779 million kilometers from the sun. During the maneuver, the solar-powered Juno will briefly pass into Earth's shadow and emerge over India's east coast. At closest approach, Juno will fly within 565 kilometers of the Earth's surface, passing over the ocean off the coast of South Africa. Juno was scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July 2016 after traveling 2.7 billion kilometers. Juno will venture closer to the planet that previous spacecraft, circling it for at least a year to study its cloud-covered atmosphere and mysterious interior to better understand how the giant planet formed.
