Say you send a spacecraft into the outer reaches of the Solar System on a scientific mission. But on its way, somewhere around Mars, fast-moving dust particles hit its body, including the solar panels, chipping off little pieces. Fortunately the spacecraft is robust and it continues its journey towards Jupiter relatively unfazed. But the solar panels have suffered important damage.
This is the fate that befell Juno, a spacecraft that NASA launched in 2011 to study the gas-giant Jupiter and its moons. Juno entered into a polar orbit around the planet on July 5, 2016. But before it did, according to data reported in a 2021 paper by a group of researchers from Denmark and the U.S., dust particles struck the solar panels attached to the Juno spacecraft.
