The Juno space probe has arrived in orbit around Jupiter in a historic moment for astronomy after a five-year, 1.4 billion-mile voyage.

The spacecraft, named after the Roman goddess, completed a high-stakes manoeuvre that saw it fire a rocket to slow its 250,000 kph approach to the gas giant.

Cheers and applause erupted in mission control at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology when a signal arrived confirming the burn was complete at around 4.54am.

The mission's chief scientist, Scott Bolton, congratulated his team, saying "you've just done the hardest thing Nasa's ever done" as the technicians and scientists celebrated completing the complex approach procedure.

However the mission still faces the huge challenge of operating the $1.1 billion probe in one of the solar system's harshest environments, where circuitry-frying levels of radiation and high velocity dust and particles will be a constant threat.

Should all go to plan, Juno's instruments and camera could provide insights into the history of the solar system and return stunning images of the planet.

The spacecraft began the perilous final stage of its journey in the early hours of this morning with a 35-minute blast from its rocket engine.