NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently caught a view of Jupiter’s northern hemisphere, “Jet N4” and it’s a swirly, vibrant portrait of the massive planet.
Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson used data from Juno’s JunoCam imager to create the image above. It was taken on September 11 at 8:31 p.m. PDT while Juno completed its 22nd flyby of the planet. When the image was captured, Juno was approximately 7,540 miles from the cloud tops, as shown in the colorful image above.
According to NASA, the gas giant spins once every 10 hours and this fast rotation forms strong jet streams, dividing clouds into dark belts and bright zones that span Jupiter. Over 12 prevailing winds sweep over the Jupiter and some can reach more than 300 miles per hour at the planet’s equator.
Colors on the wind: I took in this view of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere during my latest close flyby. This image was created from JunoCam data by Björn Jónsson. Details: https://t.co/yM9YCegsHA pic.twitter.com/x8hQr2hMEf
— NASA’s Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) October 10, 2019
The Juno mission, which was launched on August 5, 2011, aims to improve scientists’ understanding of the solar system’s early days by revealing details on the evolution of Jupiter. Juno will specifically determine how much water is present in Jupiter’s atmosphere, measure composition and cloud motion of Jupiter, map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, and explore Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles.
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- NASA’s Juno Gets Ready to Jump Over Jupiter’s Shadow
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