A planet on steroids. How Juno could solve the riddle of Jupiter

The largest planet in the solar system may finally give up its secrets thanks to a new probe

A few days from now, a US spacecraft carrying a 200kg titanium vault crammed with delicate electronic equipment and fitted with a vast array of solar panels will sweep over the poles of Jupiter before entering into orbit around the giant planet. The craft, named Juno, has travelled almost three billion kilometres since it was launched in 2011. For the next two years, the huge spaceship will skim over Jupiter's thick atmosphere while trying to avoid the planet's huge belts of deadly radiation in a bid to uncover the secrets of this mysterious, remote world.

The $1.1bn (757,837m) mission is designed to peer deep into the thick layers of gases that make up the planet's atmosphere and return data that could be crucial to understanding the birth not just of Jupiter but of all the planets in our solar system, including Earth.