NASA's Juno Mission Captures Swirls in Jovian Storms
Swirling clouds on Jupiter are shown in an image taken by the JunoCam public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft on Feb. 25, 2022.
Juno's orbit around Jupiter changes every time the spacecraft passes the giant planet, with the point of closest approach – perijove, or "PJ" – moving steadily northward. As the perijove changes, the resolution of images taken in the northern hemisphere steadily increases. This zoomed-in cutout of a JunoCam image, acquired on PJ40 at 54 degrees north, shows new detail in the clouds and storms. Taken at an altitude of 4,133 miles (6,652 kilometers), the image reveals features as small as 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) across.
Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the images to enhance color and contrast.
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu.