Legos Go to Jupiter — Oh, and a Spaceship Too
Jupiter and its swirl of moons got a good going-over by the Galileo spacecraft when it orbited through the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003. But a lot of questions remained unanswered about the planet's interior, magnetic field, chemistry and weather. Now NASA's going back with the Juno spacecraft, launched in August and slated for arrival in 2016. The ship will enter a polar orbit around Jupiter — circling the planet north to south instead of along its waistline — which should provide both new science and stunning new images. And then, of course, there are the Legos. Tucked inside the ship are Lego figurines of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei, who discovered the four large moons of Jupiter in 1610. Affixed to the side of the ship is also a plaque bearing Galileo's likeness and a diary entry in the great man's own hand, describing the moons' discovery.