A European spacecraft has used Earth's gravity to change its path toward Jupiter. The probe, called Juice, flew past our planet on September 28. At its closest point, it was just 8,640 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. The flyby bent its route by 20 degrees and added 3.5 kilometers per second to its speed. During the pass, its cameras took a series of pictures.
The move used very little fuel. Operators needed only one tiny correction in the four weeks before the flyby. The spacecraft can now keep more fuel for studying Jupiter's icy moons. The flyby also gave the team a third chance to test some of Juice's ten science instruments. The team says the real challenge comes later, with 35 flybys of Jupiter's giant moons. Juice should fly past the moon Europa in the early 2030s.