A stunning new Nasa image shows raging storms on Jupiter with clouds that stretch for thousands of miles.
Swirling cloud formations seen over the gas giant planet’s surface, one of which is more than 4,000 miles (6,500 km) long, resemble the brush strokes of an oil painting.
Nasa’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since 2016, captured the image while only 11,700 miles (19,000 km) from the tops of Jupiter’s clouds — roughly the distance between New York City and Perth, Australia.
A stunning new Nasa image shows raging storms on Jupiter with clouds that stretch for thousands of miles. Nasa’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since 2016, captured the image, which has since been colour-enhanced, while only 11,700 miles (19,000 km) from the tops of Jupiter’s clouds
The colour-enhanced image, which shows a 15,000-mile (24,000 km) cloud system in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere, was taken during the craft’s ninth flyby on October 24.
Juno was positioned at a latitude of 57.57 degrees – nearly three-fifths of the way from the gas giant planet’s equator to its north pole.
‘Because of the Juno-Jupiter-sun angle when the spacecraft captured this image, the higher-altitude clouds can be seen casting shadows on their surroundings,’ Nasa said in a statement.
‘The behaviour is most easily observable in the whitest regions in the image, but also in a few isolated spots in both the bottom and right areas of the image.’
Nasa shared several beautiful images of Jupiter last month taken during Juno’s most recent flybys of the planet.
One of the most breathtaking photos shows a ‘string of pearls’ – a series of eight massive rotating storms on Jupiter.
The image, also taken on October 24, was snapped when Juno was 20,577 miles (33,115 kilometres) above the tops of the clouds of the planet, which travel at about 129,000 mph (60 km/s).
This image was taken by Juno on October 24 and was processed and colour enhanced. The swirling lines are cyclones on the planet, while the white ovals are ‘pearls’ – massive rotating storms. The colour clouds on Jupiter travel at about 129,000 mph (60 km/s).
NASA’S JUNO MISSION
The Juno probe reached Jupiter last year after a five-year, 1.8 billion-mile journey from Earth
The Juno probe reached Jupiter last year after a five-year, 1.8 billion-mile journey from Earth.
Following a successful braking manoeuvre, it has now entered into a long polar orbit flying to within 3,100 miles (5,000 km) of the planet’s swirling cloud tops.
The probe will skim to within just 4,200 km of the planet’s clouds once a fortnight – too close to provide global coverage in a single image.
No previous spacecraft has orbited so close to Jupiter, although two others have been sent plunging to their destruction through its atmosphere.
To complete its risky mission Juno will have to survive a circuit-frying radiation storm generated by Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field. The maelstrom of high energy particles travelling at nearly the speed of light is the harshest radiation environment in the Solar System.
To cope with the conditions, the spacecraft is protected with special radiation-hardened wiring and sensor shielding.
Its all-important ‘brain’ – the spacecraft’s flight computer – is housed in an armoured vault made of titanium and weighing almost 400 pounds (172kg).
It was processed and colour enhanced by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstadt and Sean Doran.
A ‘string of pearls’ was pictured in the image at 40 degrees south latitude on the gas giant planet.
Nasa described them as ‘massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere.’
This colour-enhanced image shared by Nasa last month shows cyclones on the surface of Jupiter, with a close-up of one of the ‘pearl’ storms shown in white
Since they were first spotted in 1986, these white ovals have varied in number from six to nine, with eight currently visible.
At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 20,577 miles (33,115 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of minus 52.96 degrees.
The spatial scale in the image is 13.86 miles/pixel (22.3 kilometers/pixel).
Another image of Jupiter, released by Nasa on 10 November, shows a close-up view of one of the ‘pearls’, and almost resembles Van Gogh’s famous painting, The Starry Night.
Juno comes close to the surface of Jupiter for just a few hours once every 53 days.
The probe can’t take images through the duration of the flyby, and instead targets select regions during each close approach.
The new image comes just two months after Juno captured stunning images of two of Jupiter’s largest moons. Jupiter is known to have dozens of moons orbiting in its vicinity – but, in the image, the satellites Io and Europa take the spotlight beside the gas giant planet
While Nasa regularly uploads images taken by Juno, it seems that the space agency was especially taken with the image of the String of Pearls.
Nasa uploaded the image to Twitter with the caption: ‘Stunning (adjective) Definition – causing wonder or astonishment.
‘Synonyms – amazing, astonishing, astounding, awesome, eye-opening, fabulous, miraculous, prodigious, staggering, marvellous, stupendous, sublime, surprising, wonderful, wondrous.’