Here’s a list of planets in the solar system visited by every country on Earth not named America: Venus, Mars*
Here’s a list of planets in the solar system visited by America: EVERY FUCKING PLANET
*Technically, the Cassini probe that went to Saturn was a joint NASA-ESA venture, but fuck Europe.
Just like this nation owns in domestic light beer consumption, accidental gun deaths, and institutionalized corruption within our democracy, we also fucking own space.
That’s right, denizens of ever other country, we own space.
Today, America took a big leap forward in space exploration, reaching Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft after five years of travel, successfully entering into orbit around the planet.
Juno is a big mother fucker, about the size of an NBA court, and it will orbit the solar system’s largest planet for the next twenty months. In that time, NASA hopes it will answer every question we have about the red planet. From NASA’s Tumblr page:
The primary goal of the Juno spacecraft is to reveal the story of the formation and evolution of the planet Jupiter. Understanding the origin and evolution of Jupiter can provide the knowledge needed to help us understand the origin of our solar system and planetary systems around other stars.
Specifically, Juno will:
Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
Researchers for Juno also believe the data collected will help explain the role Jupiter had in shaping the structure of the solar system.
And just maybe we will figure what the fuck that red spot is all about.
Check out more about the mission — and how tricky this orbit they just entered into was — in this sweet video below.
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