On July 4th, history was made when NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully inserted itself into Jupiters orbit. The mission will run until February 20, 2018, when NASA will send the spacecraft to its demise in a blaze of glory. Juno will perform a “deorbit phase” maneuver and hurtle itself towards Jupiters violent atmosphere where it will burn away into nothing.

Seems like a weird way to end a $1.1 billion spacecrafts life right?

The reason behind this is to protect alien life, which Europa may have. Throwing the spacecraft into Jupiter will help protect the planet’s moons, mainly Europa, as scientists believe Europa is our best bet for finding alien life in our solar system. NASA has very strict rules on contaminating other planets with Earth’s germs, so it is not worth the risk to them. Burning Juno up in Jupiters atmosphere will destroy any bacteria that may have snuck on the spacecraft,

In case you are wondering why Juno must die instead of staying alive and collecting more data, it is because the radiation from Jupiter is so intense that eventually it will start to harm the instruments on the spacecraft and could make it uncontrollable.

Check out this animation from NASA showing Juno’s deorbit!









