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LEGOs are about to reach another planet for the first time in history

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Jupiter, Juno, and Galileo are heading to the largest gas giant in our solar system.
NASA

If aliens catch NASA's Juno spacecraft as it barrels toward Jupiter, they might get a funny picture of humanity.

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"Subjects appear to be made of hard, shiny material," the transmission might read. "Seem to be holding tools of some kind, but utility is unclear due to lack of articulated limbs."

That's what we get for sending LEGOs into space.

The three figurines were constructed by LEGO specially for Juno, which launched in August 2011. The solar-powered craft's mission is to investigate Jupiter from closer than ever before, and it's set to sink into orbit around the gas giant on July 4, 2016.

Juno will fly along the tops of the planets clouds and probe beneath them. NASA hopes learn more about the solar system's largest planet than ever before, including the nature of its atmosphere and magnetic field.

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NASA

In January, Juno reached an important benchmark for humanity — at 493 million miles from the sun, it's the farthest a solar-powered spacecraft has ever traveled. For reference, that's about 25 times than Earth's distance from our parent star.

Juno will orbit Jupiter 32 times on its mission.

As for the LEGOs? The figurines represent the Roman gods Jupiter and Juno, for which the planet and spacecraft were named. The two were king and queen of the gods on Olympus. (If you're more familiar with Greek mythology, you might know them as Zeus and Hera.)

Famously, the two were not only a couple, but a tumultuous one. Deity Jupiter, like the planet, would hide in cloak of clouds to avoid detection during what NASA politely calls "mischief," but was actually a ton of infidelity.

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He's carrying his signature lightening bolt, while Juno carries a magnifying glass, clearly on the hunt for her cheating hubby.

More importantly, NASA and LEGO also included a figurine of Galileo Galilei, the Renaissance-era astronomer who first noticed the existence of three of Jupiter's four moons.

There may be no better representative to visit Jupiter: NASA and LEGO have partnered with the goal of "inspir[ing] children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

Count us as inspired, too.

NASA
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