NASA’s Juno spacecraft has once again captured a stunning new look at Jupiter and two of its largest moons. Planet Jupiter is very much known to have dozens of moons orbiting in its vicinity – but, in the new image, the satellites Io and Europa take the spotlight beside the gas giant planet.
Europa is thought to be a key target in the search for microbial alien life, as its home to a subsurface ocean that may have the right conditions for habitability. The new view was captured during Juno’s eighth flyby, from about 17,098 miles (27,516 kilometers) from Jupiter’s cloud tops.
Dwarfed by the massive planet, the Galilean moon Io can be seen at an altitude of 298,880 miles (481,000 kilometers). Further away, in the left size of the image, Europa can be seen lurking at an altitude of 453,601 miles (730,000 kilometers). Juno captured the stunning new view on Sept 1 at 3:14 p.m. PDT (6:14 p.m. EDT), using the JunoCam imager. Then, citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko processed the raw data.
In September, the space agency shared another breathtaking image captured by the Juno spacecraft, revealing a look at the swirling clouds over Jupiter.
Juno spotted the phenomenon from roughly 4,707 miles (7,576 kilometers) away, offering further evidence on the planet's turbulent nature. According to NASA, the photo shows a close-up look at two points of interest, known as ‘Whale’s Tail’ and ‘Dan’s Spot.’
After the raw photos came in, the view was processed by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt, revealing the stunning colors and patterns swirling about the gas giant.
The photo is just one of several captured on Sept 1, showing various points of interest in incredible detail. A four-photo series released by NASA shows a head-on look at the planet alongside a view of Jupiter tilted upward, revealing the planet's stormy south pole. The first photo offers a look at the center of the planet, even showing a bit of the north and the aurorae on the north pole.
In the third photo, more of the cyclones that live on the planet's south side come into view. By the last, Jupiter's south pole starts to show. The spacecraft whizzed past the gas giant for a total of eight minutes between 6:03 PM and 6:11 PM EDT.
At the times the images were taken, Juno's altitude ranged from 7,545 to 14,234 miles (12,143 to 22,908 kilometers) from the tops of the planet's clouds. It flew at latitudes ranging from -28.5406 to -44.4912 degrees. Last month, a stunning new image of Jupiter captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft offered a new perspective on the gas giant, with a view that appears to show the planet flipped on its side.
The striking vista features the planet's famed Great Red Spot fading from from view, while the dynamic bands of the southern region come into focus. It was captured using data taken with the JunoCam on July 10, as the Juno spacecraft performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. When image was taken, the spacecraft was 10,274 miles from the tops of the clouds of the planet, at a latitude of -36.9 degrees.
'North is to the left of the image, and south is on the right,' NASA explains. The astonishing photo was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran - JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process. While many of Juno's images have focused on the planet's mysterious giant red spot, its little brother was also recently revealed in incredible detail by the probe.
Other recent images show the dynamic storm at the southern edge of Jupiter's northern polar region. Officially known as the North North Temperate Little Red Spot 1 (NN-LRS-1); it has been tracked at least since 1993, and may be older still, according to NASA.
The long-lived anticyclonic oval is the third largest anticyclonic oval on the planet, typically around 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) long. The color varies between red and off-white (as it is now), but this JunoCam image shows that it still has a pale reddish core within the radius of maximum wind speeds.
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon where winds around the storm flow in the direction opposite to that of the flow around a region of low pressure.
The image has been rotated so that the top of the image is actually the equatorial regions while the bottom of the image is of the northern polar regions of the planet. Although the storm is huge, it is tiny compared to its 'big brother', the so-called 'Great Red Spot'.
This violent storm, which in the late 1800s was estimated to be about 25,000 miles (about 40,000 km) in diameter – wide enough for three Earths to fit side by side. The biggest storm in the solar system, it appears as a deep red orb surrounded by layers of pale yellow, orange and white.
On July 4, Juno logged exactly one year in Jupiter orbit, and has chalked up about 71 million miles (114.5 million kilometers) in orbit around the giant planet.
'The success of science collection at Jupiter is a testament to the dedication, creativity and technical abilities of the Nasa-Juno team,' said Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
'Each new orbit brings us closer to the heart of Jupiter's radiation belt, but so far the spacecraft has weathered the storm of electrons surrounding Jupiter better than we could have ever imagined.'
Via Dailymail