As a romance author, I sing the praises of girl meets boy.

Woman meets man.

Goddess meets god.

Just such a meeting happened this week, as the king of the gods met the woman made specially for him.  The Juno spacecraft has reached planet Jupiter. Talk about a match made in heaven.

Here’s their meet-cute, and the queen of the gods approaches her lover from a distance. NASA released this time-lapse video taken during the approach, showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance and its four inner moons dancing around it.

The trip took nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometres). Juno is the first spacecraft to venture so far from Earth powered by the sun.

My congratulations to the happy couple.

For more about the Juno mission

For more about the mythic Jupiter and Juno . . . with apologies for the incest.

Jupiter and Juno, by Annibale Carracci.