Juno mission
NASA’s Juno mission has produced incredible photographs of Jupiter that resemble abstract watercolor paintings. The photograph was taken 14,600 miles (23,500 km) above the planet’s cloud tops by the spacecraft.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration reported on Instagram that the Juno spacecraft captured the image during its 24th flyby of Jupiter over the planets in July 2019.
NASA wrote, “Our Juno spacecraft captured storms on Jupiter’s northern hemisphere here as it performed its 24th close pass of the gas giant in 2019. The spacecraft took this image 14,600 miles (23,500 km) above the planet’s cloud tops”.
“Juno arrived at Jupiter in 2016 and has been studying our solar system’s largest planet and its moons, learning about gas giants and searching for the fundamental building blocks of life beyond Earth”, NASA added.
The image depicts storms on Jupiter in blue and white. They take the form of enormous whirling patterns appearing between the circles.
“Black space is barely visible on the left and top left of the image as Jupiter’s clouds swirl in blue, white, and tan. The clouds curve gently around each other, creating circular patterns as they ebb and flow across the image”, NASA explained.
“Black space appears on the right and top right side of the image. To the left and bottom of the image, white and blue clouds churn in Jupiter’s atmosphere”, NASA continued.
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With the traces of other gases, Jupiter is mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun with a diameter of around 88,850 miles (143,000 km), has a vivid appearance dominated by stripes and few storms.
Since its launch in 2016, Juno has been orbiting Jupiter, gathering data on its atmosphere, interior structure, internal magnetic field, and the magnetic field-created region around it.
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