NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently captured a new image of Jupiter. Jupiter’s atmosphere, as if wrapped around a brush soaked in multi-colored paint, draws attention.
This photo was taken by Juno on his 43rd close flight to Jupiter on July 5, and the distance between Jupiter’s upper clouds and the probe is about 5300 km. Juno was traveling at 209,000 km/h.
Juno observed the intricate colors and swirling patterns of planetary clouds. The first, somewhat grayish, image depicts the approximate color the human eye can see. It is the closest color to what would be seen if a human looked directly at Jupiter on a spaceship.
Another image digitally processed the same raw data to emphasize color saturation and contrast. The complex structure of Jupiter’s atmosphere is clearly revealed.
The color difference in the enhanced image is due to the different chemistry of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Powerful storms swirling in the planet’s clouds are also visible.
The Juno probe, which was launched in 2011 and arrived in Jupiter’s orbit in July 2016 after five years of flight, is still active. Juno orbits Jupiter, the solar system’s largest gaseous planet, in a long elliptical orbit, collecting data. Answering fundamental questions about Jupiter’s creation and evolution, and even the origins of our solar system, is why Juno continues its explorations.
Reporter Min-ha Yang ([email protected]), Electronic Newspaper Internet