NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Views Jupiter’s South Pole

The image shows the enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole. The oval storms and a transition from organized turbulence to clusters of unorganized filamentary structures. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gabriel Fiset

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft provides astronomers with a view of Jupiter’s cloud tops as it passed by the planet at a distance of roughly 52,200 kilometers (32,400 miles).

Using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno Spacecraft, citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset created this enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole. Oval storms dot the cloudscape. Approaching the pole, the organized turbulence of Jupiter’s belts and zones transitions into clusters of unorganized filamentary structures, streams of air that resemble giant tangled strings.

The image was taken on December 11, 2016 at 9:44 a.m. PST (12:44 p.m. EST), from an altitude of about 32,400 miles (52,200 kilometers) above the planet’s beautiful cloud tops.

JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at: www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam