Jupiter has been explored by 6 spacecraft but 4 of these were brief flyby missions. The problem with observing Jupiter for any longer than a few hours is radiation.

The planet has an enormous and incredibly strong magnetic field that traps charged particles, creating belts of intense radiation that can cook spacecrafts’ electronics.

The two orbiters that have spent time at Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft and the Juno spacecraft, were built to resist the worst effects of radiation.

NASA’s Juno mission is still in orbit at Jupiter, peering beneath the planet’s cloud layer using a combination of gravitational and magnetic measurements, as well as observing at wavelengths that the top layers of the atmosphere are transparent to, allowing the spacecraft to look below the cloud deck.

Jupiter missions

• Pioneer 10 (1973, NASA)
• Pioneer 11 (1974, NASA)
• Voyager 1 (1979, NASA)
• Voyager 2 (1979, NASA)
• Galileo (1995, NASA)
• Juno (2016, NASA)

Images of Jupiter

Below is a selection of pictures of Jupiter captured by astrophotographers and BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers.

For advice on photographing Jupiter yourself, read our guide on how to photograph planets or our beginner’s guide to astrophotography.

And if you’ve managed to photograph the Gas Giant, don’t forget to send us your images or share them with us via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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