A thin crescent moon appears Friday night near the bright planet Jupiter. The two are high in the western sky after sunset. They are both in the zodiacal constellation Leo, but not far from the zodiacal constellation Virgo.

This is a big week for Jupiter. The week began with the space voyager Juno arriving on the scene, orbiting the planet and beginning its mission.

Jupiter is a giant, too big and too distant to safely visit. Though Juno was going at record-breaking speed it still took five years to complete its voyage.

Jupiter is magical and complex, almost big enough to shine like a star but massive when compared to our own Earth. Jupiter is over 11 times bigger than Earth. You can put 1,100 planets the size of the Earth inside and there is still enough room for them to rattle about.

The planet is a caldron of gases, compressed by high gravity and producing all kinds of harmful energy, such as x-rays and high charged radiation.

The best part of Juno’s visit will be the stories to be unlocked. Astronomers want to study Jupiter more carefully, believing it possesses all the original gases and particles that were part of the formation of our solar system.