At 11:54 pm Eastern, loud applause and cheers echoed throughout NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after data confirmed the mammoth solar-powered Juno spacecraft had successfully entered the orbit of Jupiter on the 4^th of July as planned.

"Welcome to Jupiter!" lit up mission control screens at JPL in Pasadena, California. A tweet from NASA's Juno Mission read "Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. I'm ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it." Google celebrated the event with a special infographic on its search page.

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Scientists now eagerly anticipate the first photos of Jupiter taken by Juno.

The "orbital insertion maneuver" that began at 11:18 pm Eastern slowed down Juno by some 542 meters per second so Jupiter's gravity could capture the speeding spacecraft that blasted-off from Earth on Aug. 5, 2011 and has been chasing Jupiter since. NASA learned about the successful ignition of the probe's engine 49 minutes after the burn took place.

Juno transmitted tones throughout the process. Each tone was a signal for a different milestone but the most important one was the final "I am in orbit" tone they received at 11:54 pm EDT.

Juno, which is an acronym for "JUpiter Near-polar Orbiter," will give scientists their closest look ever of the solar system's largest planet and probably the first planet to be formed in the solar system.

Juno's nine instruments will study Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere. It will also search for clues about how Jupiter formed; will try to find out if Jupiter has a rocky core and determine the amount of water present its atmosphere, among others.

A NASA video of Juno approaching Jupiter's moons can be viewed here.

"This is phenomenal," said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"NASA did it again," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator. "We're there, we're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter."

Juno is a huge spacecraft. Its main spacecraft body measures 3.5 meters tall and 3.5 meters in diameter. With its three solar panels open, however, Juno spans some 20 meters.

Juno will orbit Jupiter 37 times over the next 20 months before it crashes into the planet on February 20, 2018, officially ending this historic mission.

TagsJuno spacecraft, Jupiter, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JUpiter Near-polar Orbiter