Imagine all the work scientists had to do to get Juno ready to fly all the way to Jupiter! Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton says Juno is "built like an armored tank." That should make it able to survive Jupiter’s harsh atmosphere. Orbiting Jupiter exposes Juno to a lot of radiation—about as much as 100 million dental x-rays! When Juno arrived at its destination, Mr. Bolton said it felt like a dream come true. He told his team, “We just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done.” His team had waited five whole years to see their work pay off. That takes serious patience!

Science works by building off work other people have already done. That means scientists need lots of patience. In a way, the work Mr. Bolton’s team did started centuries ago when Galileo glimpsed Jupiter. Between then and now, many tiny pieces moved into place. These made Juno’s mission possible. People invented computers and spacecraft. Other missions traveled to Jupiter. Little by little, people gathered new information about the gas giant. During the Juno mission, scientists will fill in some gaps between what they know. But they will be able to do that only a little at a time.

Many scientists are hoping the Juno mission will tell us how the planets first formed. In some ways, that is a big mystery! We don’t know just what it looked like when God spoke the solar system into being. But we do know that He did it. Scientists are not right all the time. How could they be? They have so much to explore! They are learning and correcting themselves all the time! (Just like they did when they called Pluto a dwarf planet.) For that reason, they need to be patient and humble. They are studying the work of a great God. Will they give Him the credit?