Juno probe

Juno was commanded to pass just 4,200km above the cloud tops of the gas giant on Saturday.

No previous spacecraft has got so close to the world during the main phase of its mission.

Juno had all its instruments - and its camera - switched on and primed for the encounter.

Nasa expects to be in a position to release some images from the approach in the next few days. They will be the highest resolution pictures ever obtained of Jupiter's clouds.

The Juno satellite, which left Earth five years ago, had to fire a rocket engine to slow its approach to the planet and get caught by its gravity.

A sequence of tones transmitted from the spacecraft confirmed the braking manoeuvre had gone as planned.

Receipt of the radio messages prompted wild cheering at Nasa's mission control in Pasadena, California.

"All stations on Juno co-ord, we have the tone for burn cut-off on Delta B," Juno Mission Control had announced. "Roger Juno, welcome to Jupiter."