05.18.17

Jovian Cloud Tops

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Bjorn Jonsson

This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s cloud tops was processed by citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The image highlights a massive counterclockwise rotating storm that appears as a white oval in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere.

Juno acquired this image on Feb. 2, 2017, at 6:13 a.m. PDT (9:13 a.m. EDT), as the spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) from the planet.

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