Nasa's Juno craft makes record-breaking Jupiter approach

Nasa's Juno spacecraft has skimmed the clouds above Jupiter as part of a mission that saw it make a record-breaking close approach to the planet.

The craft successfully executed the first of its 36 orbital flybys of the planet on Saturday as it passed about 2,600 miles above Jupiter's swirling clouds, recording scientific data as it went.

Travelling at a speed of at 130,000 mph Juno activated its entire suite of nine science instruments in order to capture upclose data from the planet which once downloaded on earth are expected to include stunningly detailed pictures of the planet.

Juno's project manager Rick Nybakken said that "early post-flyby telemetry indicates that everything worked as planned and Juno is firing on all cylinders" and principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute Scott Bolton indicated that "intriguing data" was already being transmitted back.

He added: "It will take days for all the science data collected during the flyby to be downlinked and even more to begin to comprehend what Juno and Jupiter are trying to tell us."

The flyby is the first time the spacecraft has ever flown so near to Jupiter before and beats the previous record for a close approach to the planet which was set by Nasa's Pioneer 11 spacecraft, which passed at a distance of 27,000 miles in 1974.