New Horizons Sees Changes in Jupiter System

This montage of New Horizons images shows Jupiter and its volcanic moon, Io. The images were taken during the spacecraft's near-pass of the gas giant in early 2007. Credit: NASA/JHU/APL

New Horizons' voyage through the Jupiter system in 2007 provided a bird's-eye view of a dynamic planet that has changed since the last close-up looks by NASA spacecraft. A combination of trajectory, timing and technology allowed it to explore details no probe had seen before, such as lightning near Jupiter’s poles, the life cycle of fresh ammonia clouds, boulder-size clumps speeding through the planet’s faint rings, the structure inside volcanic eruptions on its moon Io, and the path of charged particles traversing the previously unexplored length of the planet’s long magnetic tail.

New Horizons passed our solar system's largest planet on its way to Pluto, which it should reach in 2015.