NASA’s Juno Captures Breathtaking Chaotic Clouds And Cyclonic Storms On Jupiter
Juno first arrived at Jupiter, known for its violent storms, in 2016, following a 1.7 billion-mile journey from Earth. It has provided NASA with awe-inspiring images that have led to breakthrough discoveries of not only Jupiter, but of its icy moon Europa and hellish moon Io, among others. Part of the allure of Juno is the spacecraft’s mission team shares the images taken by the space probe with the world, allowing citizen scientists to unleash their creativeness. Such is the case with the image captured by Juno on May 12, 2024.
The recent image of Jupiter is a color-enhanced view of the gas giant’s northern hemisphere, and highlights a detailed view of what NASA describes as “chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms” in an area known to scientists as a folded filamentary region. Within these regions, zonal jets that create the familiar banded patterns in Jupiter’s cloud break down. This leads to turbulent patterns and cloud structures that quickly evolve over the period of just a few days.
The image, which was created by citizen scientist Gary Eason by applying digital processing techniques to enhance color and clarity, was captured while Juno was around 18,000 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops. NASA remarked that raw images from Juno are available for the public to peruse and process into image products.
Other citizen scientists have provided enhanced images of Jupiter and its moons as well. One helped reveal cloud heights and other features that were hard to distinguish in the muted raw images straight out of the spacecraft. Another stitched together images of individual cyclones near the north pole, with the completed image surprising researchers as it showed a pinwheel of complementary storms whirling around a central vortex.
Juno is scheduled to continue investigating Jupiter through September 2025. Its principal goal is to help scientists to better understand the origin and evolution of the gas giant. Scientists believe Jupiter holds secrets beneath its dense cloud cover to the fundamental processes and conditions that likely govern the solar system as it formed. While the Juno spacecraft completed its primary mission in 2021, it continues to send back valuable data about Jupiter and its moons.
Anyone who would like to participate in the citizen scientist project can do so by visiting NASA’s Juno webpage.
