For the start of World Space Week, today"s homepage features a composite of images taken by NASA"s Juno probe as it swooped past Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter also has the largest number of moons: 79. Jupiter is the Roman counterpart to Zeus, and the planet"s major moons are named after Zeus", shall we say, extra-marital partners. So, when it came time to name NASA"s most ambitious Jupiter probe, they decided to name it after Jupiter’s wife, Juno, so that she could keep an eye on him. Every 53 days in the course of its wide and complex orbit, the Juno probe makes its closest approach, snapping shots like these as it speeds past the gas giant in just two hours. World Space Week starts on the anniversary of the launch of the very first space probe, Sputnik, which entered orbit around the Earth on October 4, 1957.
World Space Week begins
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Black History Month
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Pont dArcole over the Seine river, Paris, France
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Tall, taller, tallest
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‘Fringe’ takes center stage as Edinburgh celebrates the arts
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A splash by the sea
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Grand finish of Le Tour
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Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
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Remembering the Velvet Revolution
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San Francisco Bay salt flats
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Jan van Eyckplein in Bruges, Belgium
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World Environment Day
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Explorer of the sea
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Diamond Beach, Iceland
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World Wildlife Day
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Red-leaf hunting in Japan
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Silver-studded blue butterflies
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Florentine garden brings generations together
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3,000 years of history
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Cosplay strongly encouraged
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Where the wildflowers grow
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Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
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Mod gear
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Design for Each and All
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The Wall for Peace
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The desert blooms
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Welcome to the drainpipe of the Pacific
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Midnight sun
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Native American Heritage Month
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Waimea Canyon and Waipoo Falls, Kauai, Hawaii
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Penguin Awareness Day