NASA’s Juno mission captured this look at Jupiter’s tumultuous northern regions during the spacecraft’s close approach to the planet on February 17, 2020.
Some notable features in this view are the long, thin bands that run through the center of the image from top to bottom. Juno has observed these long streaks since its first close pass by Jupiter in 2016. The streaks are layers of haze particles that float above the underlying cloud features. Scientists don’t yet know exactly what these hazes are made of or how they form. Two jet streams in Jupiter’s atmosphere flank either side of the region where the narrow bands of haze typically appear, and some researchers speculate those jet streams may influence the formation of the high hazes.
This JunoCam image was processed by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt. It was taken on February 17, 2020, at 9:29 a.m. PST (12:29 p.m. EST), as the Juno spacecraft performed its 25th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 15,610 miles (25,120 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops at a latitude of about 71 degrees North.
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4 Comments
It is an amazing image, but did it really need the over-hyped headline? “Jaw-dropping” has become a tedious cliché.
These photos and data are totally awesome and SO greatly appreciated. Thank you immensely for sharing. I do hope there will be more to come.
Rebecca – Florida
Hey look are you idiots foreal …? Can you see the creatures all sorts of them if not zoom in and out and play with this photo awhile I’m sure its will be more than just a couple holy s#!t s when you realize what you have captured I’m screenshoting so no need to remove
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You do realize Jupiter is a massive ball of gas right? And zooming in on the photo isnt doing much for you lmfao its 1200 times the size of earth so you “creatures” would be the size of planets but its not like earth. Theres not creatures running around its a ball of gas.if you stare at the clouds long enough you eventually will see something resembling something else and thats all your doing here. Things that resemble creatures to your eyes are just swirling gasses, quit drinking the bong water. Your acting like youve made a huge discovery that all these scientists somehow missed lmfao bye “zooming in” on your damn cellphone no less. listen to yourself. Not everything is a huge conspiracy theres no hidden creatures here captain space commander.