Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, illustration. Launched by NASA from Earth in 2011, the Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter in July 2016, entering an elliptical, polar orbit. It will orbit Jupiter 32 times over the next year, gathering information about the planet's atmosphere, magnetic field and gravitational field. Juno will repeatedly dive between the planet and its intense belts of charged particle radiation, passing 5000 kilometres above the planet's cloud tops at its closest approach. Juno's study of Jupiter will help us to understand the history of Jupiter and our own solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop.