View allAll Photos Tagged NASAJuno
New findings from NASA’s Juno probe orbiting Jupiter provide a fuller picture of how the planet’s distinctive and colorful atmospheric features offer clues about the unseen processes below its clouds. The results highlight the inner workings of the belts and zones of clouds encircling Jupiter, as well as its polar cyclones and even the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter's banded appearance is created by the cloud-forming weather layer. This composite image shows views of Jupiter in infrared and visible light taken by the Gemini North telescope and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Credits: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/NASA/ESA, M.H. Wong and I. de Pater (UC Berkeley) et al.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #ESA #EuropeanSpaceAgency
This image shows two of Jupiter's large rotating storms, captured by Juno’s visible-light imager, JunoCam, on Juno’s 38th perijove pass, on Nov. 29, 2021.
This image was acquired at 50 degrees 5 minutes north latitude, at an altitude of 3,815 miles (6,140 kilometers). Atmospheric details as small as 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) can be discerned in the image. Bright “pop-up” clouds are visible above the lower storm, casting shadows on the cloud bank below. Although the pop-up clouds appear small in comparison to the large storm below, such clouds are typically 31 miles (50 kilometers) across.
Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image to enhance the color and contrast, using raw JunoCam data
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY--
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of Jupiter during the mission’s 40th close pass by the giant planet on Feb. 25, 2022. The large, dark shadow on the left side of the image was cast by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.
Citizen scientist Thomas Thomopoulos created this enhanced-color image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument (Figure A). At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 44,000 miles (71,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 55 degrees south, and 15 times closer than Ganymede, which orbits about 666,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) away from Jupiter.
An observer at Jupiter’s cloud tops within the oval shadow would experience a total eclipse of the Sun. Total eclipses are more common on Jupiter than Earth for several reasons. Jupiter has four major moons (Galilean satellites) that often pass between Jupiter and the Sun: in seven days, Ganymede transits once; Europa, twice; and Io, four times. And since Jupiter’s moons orbit in a plane close to Jupiter’s orbital plane, the moon shadows are often cast upon the planet.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY--
#NASAMarshall #nasajuno #jupiter #ganymede
Cyclones at the north pole of Jupiter appear as swirls of striking colors in this extreme false color rendering of an image from NASA’s Juno mission. The huge, persistent cyclone found at Jupiter’s north pole is visible at the center of the image, encircled by smaller cyclones that range in size from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,600 kilometers). Together, this pattern of storms covers an area that would dwarf the Earth.
The color choices in this image reveal both the beauty of Jupiter and the subtle details present in Jupiter’s dynamic cloud structure. Each new observation that Juno provides of Jupiter’s atmosphere complements computer simulations and helps further refine our understanding of how the storms evolve over time.
The Juno mission provided the first clear views of Jupiter’s polar regions. Juno’s Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument has also mapped this area, as well as a similar pattern of storms at the planet’s south pole.
Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt made this composite image using data obtained by the JunoCam instrument during four of the Juno spacecraft’s close passes by Jupiter, which took place between Feb. 17, 2020, and July 25, 2020. The greatly exaggerated color is partially a result of combining many individual images to create this view.
Image Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter
During its 36th low pass over Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of striking cloud bands and swirls in the giant planet’s mid-southern latitudes. The dark, circular vortex near the center of the image is a cyclone that spans roughly 250 miles (about 400 kilometers). The color at its center is likely to be the result of descending winds that cleared out upper-level clouds, revealing darker material below.
Citizen scientist Brian Swift used a raw JunoCam image digitally projected onto a sphere to create this view. It has been rotated so that north is up. The original image was taken on Sept. 2, 2021, at 4:09 p.m. PDT (7:09 p.m. EDT). At the time, the spacecraft was about 16,800 miles (about 27,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 31 degrees south.
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found a science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at www.nasa.gov/juno and missionjuno.swri.edu/. For more about this finding and other science results, see www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings/.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Brian Swift © CC BY--
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter
The gas giant orbiter has flown over 510 million miles and also documented close encounters with three of Jupiter’s four largest moons.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will fly past Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io on Tuesday, May 16, and then the gas giant itself soon after. The flyby of the Jovian moon will be the closest to date, at an altitude of about 22,060 miles (35,500 kilometers). Now in the third year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft will also explore the ring system where some of the gas giant’s inner moons reside.
To date, Juno has performed 50 flybys of Jupiter and also collected data during close encounters with three of the four Galilean moons – the icy worlds Europa and Ganymede, and fiery Io.
This JunoCam image of the Jovian moon Io was collected during Juno’s flyby of the moon on March 1, 2023. At the time of closest approach, Juno was about 32,000 miles (51,500 kilometers) away from Io.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill (CC BY)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
As NASA’s Juno mission completed its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5, 2022, its JunoCam instrument captured this striking view of vortices — hurricane-like spiral wind patterns — near the planet’s north pole.
These powerful storms can be over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in height and hundreds of miles across. Figuring out how they form is key to understanding Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry that create the planet’s other atmospheric features. Scientists are particularly interested in the vortices’ varying shapes, sizes, and colors. For example, cyclones, which spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern, and anti-cyclones, which rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, exhibit very different colors and shapes.
A NASA citizen science project, Jovian Vortex Hunter, seeks help from volunteer members of the public to spot and help categorize vortices and other atmospheric phenomena visible in JunoCam photos of Jupiter. This process does not require specialized training or software, and can be done by anyone, anywhere, with a cellphone or laptop. As of July 2022, 2,404 volunteers had made 376,725 classifications using the Jovian Vortex Hunter project web site at www.zooniverse.org/projects/ramanakumars/jovian-vortex-hu....
Another citizen scientist, Brian Swift, created this enhanced color and contrast view of vortices using raw JunoCam image data. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 15,600 miles (25,100 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 84 degrees.
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at www.nasa.gov/juno and missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Brian Swift © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno ter #nasajuno
The first picture NASA's Juno spacecraft took as it flew by Jupiter's ice-encrusted moon Europa has arrived on Earth. Revealing surface features in a region near the moon's equator called Annwn Regio, the image was captured during the solar-powered spacecraft's closest approach, on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 2:36 a.m. PDT (5:36 a.m. EDT), at a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers).
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #europa
JunoCam took this image of Jupiter’s northernmost cyclone (visible to the right along the bottom edge of image) on Sept. 29, 2022.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Navaneeth Krishnan S CC BY 3.0
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
This image from NASA’s Juno mission captures the northern hemisphere of Jupiter around the region known as Jet N7. The planet’s strong winds create the many swirling storms visible near the top of its atmosphere. Data from Juno helped scientists discover another, less visible effect of those winds: Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field changes over time. The winds extend more than 1800 miles (3000 kilometers) deep, where the material lower in Jupiter’s atmosphere is highly conductive, electrically. Scientists determined that the wind shears this conductive material apart and carries it around the planet, which changes the shape of the magnetic field.
Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this false-color image using data from the JunoCam camera. The original image was taken on February 21, 2021 as the Juno spacecraft performed its 32nd close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, the spacecraft was about 10,200 miles (16,400 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds at a latitude of about 66 degrees north.
Image Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Kevin M. Gill © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot
Research reveals a new explanation for how the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa rotates at a different rate than its interior. NASA’s Europa Clipper will take a closer look. NASA scientists have strong evidence that Jupiter’s moon Europa has an internal ocean under its icy outer shell – an enormous body of salty water swirling around the moon’s rocky interior. New computer modeling suggests the water may actually be pushing the ice shell along, possibly speeding up and slowing down the rotation of the moon’s icy shell over time.
This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will explore the moon when it reaches orbit around Jupiter in 2030.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Europa #EuropaClipper
The spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter’s largest moon than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy orb.
The first two images from NASA Juno’s June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter’s giant moon Ganymede have been received on Earth. The photos – one from the Jupiter orbiter’s JunoCam imager and the other from its Stellar Reference Unit star camera – show the surface in remarkable detail, including craters, clearly distinct dark and bright terrain, and long structural features possibly linked to tectonic faults.
This image of Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager during Juno’s June 7, 2021, flyby of the icy moon.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam #Ganymede
Jupiter's volcanically active moon Io casts its shadow on the planet in this dramatic image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. As with solar eclipses on the Earth, within the dark circle racing across Jupiter's cloud tops one would witness a full solar eclipse as Io passes in front of the Sun.
Such events occur frequently on Jupiter because it is a large planet with many moons. In addition, unlike most other planets in our solar system, Jupiter's axis is not highly tilted relative to its orbit, so the Sun never strays far from Jupiter's equatorial plane (+/- 3 degrees). This means Jupiter's moons regularly cast their shadows on the planet throughout its year.
Juno's close proximity to Jupiter provides an exceptional fish-eye view, showing a small fraction near the planet's equator. The shadow is about 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) wide, approximately the same width as Io, but appears much larger relative to Jupiter.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter
NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere during the spacecraft’s 39th close flyby of the planet on Jan. 12, 2022. Zooming in on the right portion of the image reveals two more worlds in the same frame: Jupiter’s intriguing moons Io (left) and Europa (right).
Io is the solar system’s most volcanic body, while Europa’s icy surface hides a global ocean of liquid water beneath. Juno will have an opportunity to capture much more detailed observations of Europa – using several scientific instruments – in September 2022, when the spacecraft makes the closest fly-by of the enigmatic moon in decades. The mission will also make close approaches to Io in late 2023 and early 2024.
At the time this image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) from Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 52 degrees south. Citizen scientist Andrea Luck created the image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by AndreaLuck © CC BY
#NASAMarshall #nasajuno #jupiter #io #Europa
On March 1, 2023, NASA's Juno mission completed its 49th close flyby of Jupiter. As the spacecraft flew low over the giant planet's cloud tops, its JunoCam instrument captured this look at bands of high-altitude haze forming above cyclones in an area known at Jet N7.
Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson processed a raw image from the JunoCam instrument, enhancing the contrast and sharpness. At the time the image was taken, Juno was about 5,095 miles (8,200 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitude of about 66 degrees.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Björn Jónsson © CC NC SA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
A new NASA citizen science project, Jovian Vortex Hunter, seeks your help spotting vortices – spiral wind patterns – and other phenomena in photos of the planet Jupiter.
Another NASA citizen science project, called Junocam, seeks help from members of the public processing images from NASA’s Juno Mission and choosing targets for the spacecraft. However, the new Jovian Vortex Hunter project provides images that have already been processed by the science team, making it quick and easy for anyone to lend a hand. Categorizing the images will help scientists understand the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry on Jupiter, which create dazzling features like bands, spots and “brown barges.”
In this image from 2019, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. This stunningly detailed look at a cyclonic storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere was taken during its 23rd close flyby of the planet (also referred to as “perijove 23”). Juno observed this vortex in a region of Jupiter called the “north north north north temperate belt,” or NNNNTB, one of the gas giant planet’s many persistent cloud bands. These bands are formed by the prevailing winds at different latitudes. The vortex seen here is roughly 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno ter #nasajuno
The spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter's largest moon than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy orb.
The first two images from NASA Juno's June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter's giant moon Ganymede have been received on Earth. The photos - one from the Jupiter orbiter's JunoCam imager and the other from its Stellar Reference Unit star camera - show the surface in remarkable detail, including craters, clearly distinct dark and bright terrain, and long structural features possibly linked to tectonic faults.
This image of the dark side of Ganymede was obtained by Juno's Stellar Reference Unit navigation camera during its June 7, 2021, flyby of the moon
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam #Ganymede
This look at the complex surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede came from NASA’s Juno mission during a close pass by the giant moon in June 2021. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within just 650 miles (1,046 kilometers) of Ganymede’s surface.
Most of Ganymede's craters have bright rays extending from the impact scar, but about 1 percent of the craters have dark rays. This image taken by JunoCam during the close Ganymede pass shows one of the dark-rayed craters. The crater, named Kittu, is about 9 miles (15 kilometers) across, surrounded by darker material ejected during the impact that formed the crater. Scientists believe that contamination from the impactor produced the dark rays. As time passes, the rays stay dark because they are a bit warmer than the surroundings, so ice is driven off to condense on nearby colder, brighter terrain.
Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, larger even than the planet Mercury. It’s the only moon known to have its own magnetic field, which causes auroras that circle the moon’s poles. Evidence also indicates Ganymede may hide a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY
#NASAMarshall #nasajuno #jupiter #ganymede #planet
This view of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere from NASA’s Juno spacecraft includes several of the planet’s southern jet streams. Using data from Juno’s instruments, scientists discovered that Jupiter’s powerful atmospheric jet streams extend far deeper than previously imagined. Evidence from Juno shows the jet streams and belts penetrate about 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) down into the planet.
The storm known as the Great Red Spot is also visible on the horizon, nearly rotated out of view as Juno sped away from Jupiter at about 30 miles per second (48 kilometers per second), which is more than 100,000 mph (160,900 kilometers per hour).
Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik created this color-enhanced image using data from the JunoCam camera. The original image was taken on Dec. 30, 2020 as the Juno spacecraft performed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, the spacecraft was about 31,000 miles (about 50,000 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 50 degrees South.
Image Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Tanya Oleksuik © CC NC SA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot
On April 8, 2023, NASA’s Juno mission completed its 50th close pass by Jupiter since the spacecraft arrived at the giant planet in 2016. In celebration of 50 orbits, this graphic contains 50 images that provide just a small sampling of the data Juno has returned so far, including images from several different instruments, and spectacular views of Earth, Jupiter, and Jupiter’s large moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
On Nov. 29, 2021, NASA’s Juno mission completed its 38th close flyby of Jupiter. As the spacecraft sped low over the giant planet’s cloud tops, its JunoCam instrument captured this look at two of Jupiter’s largest moons.
In the foreground, hurricane-like spiral wind patterns called vortices can be seen spinning in the planet’s north polar region. These powerful storms can be over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in height and hundreds of miles across.
Below Jupiter’s curving horizon, two Jovian moons make an appearance: Callisto (below) and Io (above).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #callisto #Io
In this view of a vortex near Jupiter’s north pole, NASA’s Juno mission observed the glow from a bolt of lightning. On Earth, lightning bolts originate from water clouds, and happen most frequently near the equator, while on Jupiter lightning likely also occurs in clouds containing an ammonia-water solution, and can be seen most often near the poles.
In the coming months, Juno’s orbits will repeatedly take it close to Jupiter as the spacecraft passes over the giant planet’s night side, which will provide even more opportunities for Juno’s suite of science instruments to catch lightning in the act.
Juno captured this view as Juno completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter on Dec. 30, 2020. In 2022, Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image from raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 19,900 miles (32,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 78 degrees as it approached the planet.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Kevin M. Gill © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022.
Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 50 degrees. North is up. At that moment, the spacecraft was traveling at about 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet.
The first image (left) was processed to portray the approximate colors that the human eye would see from Juno’s vantage point. The second image (right) comes from the same raw data, but in this case Jónsson digitally processed it to increase both the color saturation and contrast to sharpen small-scale features and to reduce compression artifacts and noise that typically appear in raw images. This clearly reveals some of the most intriguing aspects of Jupiter’s atmosphere, including color variation that results from differing chemical composition, the three-dimensional nature of Jupiter’s swirling vortices, and the small, bright “pop-up” clouds that form in the higher parts of the atmosphere.
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Björn Jónsson © CC NC SA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
Jupiter’s southern hemisphere was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter during its Jan. 22, 2023, flyby. The image was acquired at an altitude of 77,507 miles (124,735 kilometers) at a resolution of 52 miles (84 kilometers) per pixel.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
After revealing a trove of details about the moons Ganymede and Europa, the mission to Jupiter is setting its sights on sister moon Io.
NASA’s Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of the Jovian moon Io on Dec. 15 as part of its continuing exploration of Jupiter’s inner moons. Now in the second year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft performed a close flyby of Ganymede in 2021 and of Europa earlier this year.
In this image, the volcano-laced surface of Jupiter’s moon Io was captured in infrared by the Juno spacecraft’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) imager as it flew by at a distance of was about 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) on July 5, 2022. Brighter spots indicate higher temperatures in this image.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
This 2017 enhanced-color image from the fifth Juno flyby of Jupiter shows a mysterious dark spot which seems to reveal a Jovian “galaxy” of swirling storms.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam
The spacecraft used its infrared instrument during recent flybys of Jupiter’s mammoth moon to create this latest map, which comes out a decade after Juno’s launch.
The science team for NASA’s Juno spacecraft has produced a new infrared map of the mammoth Jovian moon Ganymede, combining data from three flybys, including its latest approach on July 20. These observations by the spacecraft’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, which “sees” in infrared light not visible to the human eye, provide new information on Ganymede’s icy shell and the composition of the ocean of liquid water beneath.
JIRAM was designed to capture the infrared light emerging from deep inside Jupiter, probing the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below Jupiter’s cloud tops. But the instrument can also be used to study the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (known collectively as the Galilean moons in honor of their discoverer, Galileo).
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam #Ganymede
On April 9, 2022, as NASA's Juno mission completed its 41st close flyby of Jupiter, its JunoCam instrument captured what it would look like to ride along with the spacecraft. Citizen scientist Andrea Luck created this animated sequence using raw JunoCam image data.
At about 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) in diameter, Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. At the point of closest approach on April 9, Juno was just over 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) above Jupiter's colorful cloud tops. At that moment, it was traveling at about 131,000 MPH (210,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet.
By comparison, at closest approach Juno was more than 10 times closer to Jupiter than satellites in geosynchronous orbit are to Earth, traveling at a speed about five times faster than the Apollo missions did when they left Earth for the Moon.
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at www.nasa.gov/juno and missionjuno.swri.edu/. For more about this finding and other science results, see www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings/.
Image credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by AndreaLuck © CC BY--
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno ter #nasajuno
The first of the gas-giant orbiter’s back-to-back flybys will provide a close encounter with the massive moon after over 20 years.
On Monday, June 7, at 1:35 p.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. PDT), NASA’s Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system’s largest natural satellite since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000. Along with striking imagery, the solar-powered spacecraft’s flyby will yield insights into the moon’s composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell. Juno’s measurements of the radiation environment near the moon will also benefit future missions to the Jovian system.
Ganymede is bigger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetosphere – a bubble-shaped region of charged particles surrounding the celestial body.
Left to right: The mosaic and geologic maps of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede were assembled incorporating the best available imagery from NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.
Image Credit: USGS Astrogeology Science Center/Wheaton/NASA/JPL-Caltech
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam
During its 33rd low pass over the cloud tops of Jupiter on April 15, 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured the intriguing evolution of a feature in the giant planet’s atmosphere known as “Clyde’s Spot.”
The feature is informally named for amateur astronomer Clyde Foster of Centurion, South Africa, who discovered it in 2020 using his own 14-inch telescope. On June 2, 2020, just two days after Foster’s initial discovery, Juno provided detailed observations of Clyde’s Spot (upper image), which scientists determined was a plume of cloud material erupting above the top layers of the Jovian atmosphere just southeast of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, which is currently about 1.3 times as wide as Earth. These powerful convective outbreaks occasionally occur in this latitude band, known as the South Temperate Belt. The initial plume subsided quickly, and within a few weeks it was seen as a dark spot.
Many features in Jupiter’s highly dynamic atmosphere are short lived, but the April 2021 observation from the JunoCam instrument (lower image) revealed that nearly one year after its discovery, the remnant of Clyde’s Spot had not only drifted away from the Great Red Spot but had also developed into a complex structure that scientists call a folded filamentary region. This region is twice as big in latitude and three times as big in longitude as the original spot, and has the potential to persist for an extended period of time.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Kevin M. Gill © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #GreatRedSpot #junocam
Observations from the spacecraft’s pass of the moon provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and unique science.
The highest-resolution photo NASA’s Juno mission has ever taken of a specific portion of Jupiter’s moon Europa reveals a detailed view of a puzzling region of the moon’s heavily fractured icy crust.
The image covers about 93 miles (150 kilometers) by 125 miles (200 kilometers) of Europa’s surface, revealing a region crisscrossed with a network of fine grooves and double ridges (pairs of long parallel lines indicating elevated features in the ice). Near the upper right of the image, as well as just to the right and below center, are dark stains possibly linked to something from below erupting onto the surface. Below center and to the right is a surface feature that recalls a musical quarter note, measuring 42 miles (67 kilometers) north-south by 23 miles (37 kilometers) east-west. The white dots in the image are signatures of penetrating high-energy particles from the severe radiation environment around the moon.
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #europa
This composite image shows a hot spot in Jupiter’s atmosphere. In the image on the left, taken on Sept. 16, 2020 by the Gemini North Telescope, the hot spot appears bright in the infrared at a wavelength of 5 microns. The inset image on the right was taken by the JunoCam visible-light imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, also on Sept. 16, during Juno’s 29th close pass by Jupiter. Here, the hot spot appears dark.
Jupiter’s hot spots have been known for a long time. On Dec. 7, 1995, the Galileo probe likely descended into a similar hot spot. To the naked eye, Jupiter’s hot spots appear as dark, cloud-free areas in the planet’s equatorial belt, but at infrared wavelengths they are extremely bright, revealing the warm, deep atmosphere below the clouds.
High resolution images of Jupiter’s hot spots such as these are key to understanding the role of storms and waves in Jupiter’s atmosphere and to solving the mystery of Jupiter’s elusive water.
Image Credit: Gemini image: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley); JunoCam image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Brian Swift © CC BY / Tom Momary © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #MSFC #solarsystem #juno #jupiter #space #astronomy #nasajuno #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter
The spinning, solar-powered spacecraft will take another look of the fiery Jovian moon on July 30.
When NASA’s Juno mission flies by Jupiter’s fiery moon Io on Sunday, July 30, the spacecraft will be making its closest approach yet, coming within 13,700 miles (22,000 kilometers) of it. Data collected by the Italian-built JIRAM (Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper) and other science instruments is expected to provide a wealth of information on the hundreds of erupting volcanoes pouring out molten lava and sulfurous gases all over the volcano-festooned moon.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io and the gas giant itself on May 16, as shown in this rendering that relies on images from the spacecraft’s JunoCam.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #io
Results from the solar-powered spacecraft provide a new measurement of the thickness of the ice shell encasing the Jovian moon’s ocean.
Data from NASA’s Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter’s moon Europa. Using the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno’s 2022 flyby of Europa. The Juno measurement is the first to discriminate between thin and thick shell models that have suggested the ice shell is anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles thick.
Slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, Europa is one of the solar system’s highest-priority science targets for investigating habitability. Evidence suggests that the ingredients for life may exist in the saltwater ocean that lies beneath its ice shell. Uncovering a variety of characteristics of the ice shell, including its thickness, provides crucial pieces of the puzzle for understanding the moon’s internal workings and the potential for the existence of a habitable environment.
Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The images show the fractures, ridges, and bands that crisscross the moon’s surface.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Björn Jónsson (CC BY 3.0)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #moon #Europa
New data from the agency’s Jovian orbiter sheds light on the fierce winds and cyclones of the gas giant’s northern reaches and volcanic action on its fiery moon.
NASA’s Juno mission has gathered new findings after peering below Jupiter’s cloud-covered atmosphere and the surface of its fiery moon, Io. Not only has the data helped develop a new model to better understand the fast-moving jet stream that encircles Jupiter’s cyclone-festooned north pole, it’s also revealed for the first time the subsurface temperature profile of Io, providing insights into the moon’s inner structure and volcanic activity.
JunoCam, the visible light imager aboard NASA’s Juno, captured this enhanced-color view of Jupiter’s northern high latitudes from an altitude of about 36,000 miles (58,000 kilometers) above the giant planet’s cloud tops during the spacecraft’s 69th flyby on Jan. 28, 2025.
Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Jackie Branc (CC BY)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #moon #Io
During its 61st close flyby of Jupiter on May 12, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this color-enhanced view of the giant planet’s northern hemisphere. It provides a detailed view of chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms in an area known to scientists as a folded filamentary region. In these regions, the zonal jets that create the familiar banded patterns in Jupiter’s clouds break down, leading to turbulent patterns and cloud structures that rapidly evolve over the course of only a few days.
Citizen scientist Gary Eason made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying digital processing techniques to enhance color and clarity.
At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 68 degrees north of the equator.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Gary Eason © CC BY
#NASAMarshall #nasajuno #jupiter
Tonight, we celebrate #ObserveTheMoon Night! International Observe the Moon Night is a time to come together with fellow Moon enthusiasts and curious people worldwide. Everyone on Earth is invited to learn about lunar science and exploration, take part in celestial observations, and honor cultural and personal connections to the Moon. We encourage everyone to interpret “observe” broadly!
But did you know that NASA is sending a space probe to study another moon? NASA's Europa Clipper is launching Oct. 10, 2024, on the first mission to conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter's moon Europa, pictured here. Scientists predict Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust that could hold the building blocks necessary to sustain life.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Europa #Moon #EuropaClipper #ObserveTheMoon
Read more International Observe the Moon Night
Citizen scientists have provided unique perspectives of the recent close flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa by NASA's Juno spacecraft. By processing raw images from JunoCam, the spacecraft’s public-engagement camera, members of the general public have created deep-space portraits of the Jovian moon that are not only awe-inspiring, but also worthy of further scientific scrutiny.
This view of Jovian moon Europa was created by processing an image JunoCam captured during Juno’s close flyby on Sept. 29.
Image credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Björn Jónsson CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #jetpropulsionlaboratory #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #europa
NASA's Juno spacecraft just made the closest flybys of Jupiter's moon Io that any spacecraft has carried out in more than 20 years. An instrument on this spacecraft called “JunoCam” returned spectacular, high-resolution images—and raw data are now available for you to process, enhance, and investigate.
On Dec. 30, 2023, Juno came within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface of the solar system's most volcanic world. It made a second ultra-close flyby of Io just this week. The second pass went predominantly over the southern hemisphere of Io, while prior flybys have been over the north. There's a lot to see in these photos! There's evidence of an active plume, tall mountain peaks with well-defined shadows, and lava lakes—some with apparent islands.
It will be a challenge to sort all of this out, and the JunoCam scientists need your help. Previous JunoCam volunteers like Gerald Eichstadt have seen their processed images appear in multiple scientific publications and press releases.
You can find the new raw images, see the creations of other image processors, and submit your own work at: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing
In this image of Jupiter's moon Io, its night side illuminated by reflected sunlight from Jupiter, or "Jupitershine."
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Emma Wälimäki © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during the mission's June 7, 2021, close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Larger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is the biggest of Jupiter’s moons and has long been of great interest to scientists due to the vast internal ocean of water hidden beneath its icy crust. Previous spectroscopic observations by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope as well as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope hinted at the presence of salts and organics, but the spatial resolution of those observations was too low to make a determination.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kalleheikki Kannisto
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #ganymede
A picture is worth a thousand words
#NASAJuno sailed alongside one of Jupiter's moons, Io, on Dec. 30, 2023, capturing unprecedented images and data. Juno's encounter with Io was the closest since the Galileo spacecraft visited in October 2001.
Juno is scheduled to make another close flyby of Io in February, studying the most volcanically active world in the solar system.
Image description: Io against the darkness of space, half illuminated from the left by the Sun. Io's surface is pockmarked and mottled, with several tall mountains casting shadows, especially along the terminator, the line dividing the bright day side from the dark night side.
Image credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill © CC BY
Infrared imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft heats up the discussion on the inner workings of Jupiter’s hottest moon.
New findings from NASA’s Juno probe provide a fuller picture of how widespread the lava lakes are on Jupiter’s moon Io and include first-time insights into the volcanic processes at work there. These results come courtesy of Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, contributed by the Italian Space Agency, which “sees” in infrared light. Researchers published a paper on Juno’s most recent volcanic discoveries on June 20 in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment.
The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured two volcanic plumes rising above the horizon of Jupiter’s moon Io. The image was taken Feb. 3 from a distance of about 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers).
Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Andrea Luck (CC BY)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
Gravity data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates Jupiter’s atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner, parallel to its spin axis. A paper on the findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The violent nature of Jupiter’s roiling atmosphere has long been a source of fascination for astronomers and planetary scientists, and Juno has had a ringside seat to the goings-on since it entered orbit in 2016. During each of the spacecraft’s 55 to date, a suite of science instruments has peered below Jupiter’s turbulent cloud deck to uncover how the gas giant works from the inside out.
NASA’s Juno captured this view of Jupiter during the mission’s 54th close flyby of the giant planet on Sept. 7. The image was made with raw data from the JunoCam instrument that was processed to enhance details in cloud features and colors.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Tanya Oleksuik CC BY NC SA 3.0
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno
NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 14, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Europa #EuropaClipper
The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years. Coming within roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the surface of the most volcanic world in our solar system, the pass is expected to allow Juno instruments to generate a firehose of data.
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Ted Stryk
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Io
Just hours before NASA’s Juno mission completed its 53rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 31, 2023, the spacecraft sped past the planet’s volcanic moon Io and captured this dramatic view of both bodies in the same frame.
The surface of Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system, is marked by hundreds of volcanoes that regularly erupt with molten lava and sulfurous gases. Juno has provided scientists with the closest looks at Io since 2007, and the spacecraft will gather additional images and data from its suite of scientific instruments during even closer passes in late 2023 and early 2024.
To create this image, citizen scientist Alain Mirón Velázquez processed a raw image from the JunoCam instrument, enhancing the contrast, color, and sharpness. At the time the raw image was taken on July 30, 2023, Juno was about 32,170 miles (about 51,770 kilometers) from Io, and about 245,000 miles (about 395,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops.
Image credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Alain Mirón Velázquez © CC BY
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #jupiter #Io
NASA’s Juno mission captured these views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet on March 7, 2024. They provide a good look at Jupiter’s colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot. Close examination reveals something more: two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea.
With a radius of just 52 miles (84 kilometers), Amalthea has a potato-like shape, lacking the mass to pull itself into a sphere. In 2000, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed some surface features, including impact craters, hills, and valleys. Amalthea circles Jupiter inside Io’s orbit, which is the innermost of the planet’s four largest moons, taking 0.498 Earth days to complete one orbit.
Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, and observations indicate it gives out more heat than it receives from the Sun. This may be because, as it orbits within Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, electric currents are induced in the moon’s core. Alternatively, the heat could be from tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity.
At the time that the first of these two images was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #Amalthea
This photo illustration of Jupiter and the three Jovian moons NASA's Juno mission has flown past was generated from data collected by the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.
Ganymede, the moon furthest to the left, was imaged by JunoCam as it flew past on June 8, 2021. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from JunoCam.
The moon second from the left is Europa, which Juno imaged on Sept. 29, 2022. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from JunoCam.
The image of Io was captured during a flyby of the moon on May 16, 2023. Citizen scientist Thomas Thomopoulos created this image using data from JunoCam.
The image of Jupiter was captured on Dec. 15, 2022. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from JunoCam.
Image credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill (CC BY), Thomas Thomopoulos (CC BY)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #jpl #nasamarshall #juno #nasajuno #jupiter #io #ganymede #Europa