NASA Juno probe shows eerie atmosphere of gas giant Jupiter, See Pic
The US space agency NASA’s Juno spacecraft has beamed an incredible image of the scary atmosphere of the largest planet of our solar system — Jupiter. Scientists have enhanced the colors of the image to make it look more appealing which also really brings out eerieness of gas giant.
The stunning photo looks no less than an art by Picasso. Jupiter completely fills the image, with only a hint of the terminator (where daylight fades to night) in the upper right corner, and no visible limb (the curved edge of the planet).
JunoCam imager installed aboard the Juno spacecraft captured the beautiful view of turbulent clouds on the Northern hemisphere on Dec. 16, 2017, at 9:43 a.m. PST (12:43 p.m. EST) from 8,292 miles (13,345 kilometers) above the tops of Jupiter’s clouds, at a latitude of 48.9 degrees. Scientists have taken 5.8 miles/pixel (9.3 kilometers/pixel) as the spatial scale.
Thanks to citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran who took the pain to process the image and enhanced its color that truly popped out the weirdness of the scene.
The spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Aug 5, 2011, and reached Jupiter on July 4, 2016.
Moreover, JunoCam imager is a color camera installed aboard Juno Spacecraft which also serves as one of the eyes of the probe. The imager was installed on the spacecraft public engagement, and it is of no use for scientists and for research purposes.
JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.
You can see all the images captured by Juno spacecraft here.