The JunoCam camera of the Juno space probe, belonging to NASA’s New Frontiers program, managed to capture a “striking view of vortices” near the north pole of Jupiter, which resemble hurricanes.
As reported by NASA, the image was taken on July 5 during Juno’s 43rd flight over the largest planet in the solar system, when the space device was about 25,100 kilometers above the polar clouds. The snapshot shows “powerful storms” that can measure more than 50 kilometers high and several hundred kilometers wide.
The US space agency stressed that scientists are interested in identifying the causes of these spiral wind patterns, which would help understand Jupiter’s atmosphere. They are also keen to learn more about fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry, which drive other atmospheric features on the planet. He also mentioned that researchers want to study the different shapes, sizes, and colors of Jupiter’s vortices.
The Juno space probe entered the orbit of Jupiter on July 4, 2016, after traveling 2.8 billion kilometers in a period of five years. From that moment on, the spacecraft began to orbit the planet every 14 days at a distance of five thousand kilometers.
As for the JunoCam instrument, it was designed to obtain images in red, green and blue wavelengths of Jupiter’s polar regions, as well as its clouds at low latitudes.
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Fuente: RT