You’ve never seen photos of Jupiter with Its multicolored cyclones like these ones – captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it swooped by Jupiter!
Even if you are not an admirer of science, you have gotta admit these grand photos of Jupiter and its pole are extremely cool. The close-up pictures were taken during NASA’s six year Juno mission to Jupiter, and what the space agency discovered is simply as fascinating as the colourful images themselves.
For one, those oval features you see on top of the Jupiter planet are literally large cyclones that are about identical size as planet Earth 😯 !
NASA’s Juno, the fastest spacecraft ever, was travelling away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass of the planet when JunoCam snapped these photos of Jupiter, from about 29,100 miles (46,900 kilometers) above the cloud tops. The spacecraft was over 66 degrees south latitude, with a lovely view of the south polar region of the planet.
The images were processed to enhance color differences, showing the amazing variety in Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere. The result: A surreal world of vibrant color, clarity and contrast. The white oval storms known as the “String of Pearls” are also visible near the top.
Interestingly, one orange-colored storm can be seen at the belt-zone boundary, while other storms are more of a cream color 🙂 .
This sequence of color-enhanced images shows how quickly the viewing geometry changes for NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter. Images by JunoCam.
The in depth Juno trip additionally included a measurement of the magnetic field of Jupiter. The magnetic field turned out to be “twice as strong” and “10 times larger than the field that surrounds Earth” as previously foretold by scientists.
There’s still far more to be found about the King of Planets, including whether or not it has a solid core.
NASA scientists are reportedly planning to build an entire map of the planet’s interior, which implies we’re close to learn a whole lot more about Jupiter!
JunoCam’s raw photos of Jupiter are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at:
All Images courtesy of NASA