On its 66th flyby of the king of planets, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured spectacular views of the stormy atmosphere, processed by citizen scientists.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft (which reached Jupiter in 2016, after launching from Cape Canaveral in 2011) has just released stunning images of Jupiter, captured during its latest flyby of the largest and oldest planet in our solar system. The Juno mission has been studying the Jovian system to learn about the giant planet’s formation and evolution with the hope that it might shed light on the development of the entire solar system, says NASA.
“Jupiter is the Rosetta Stone of our solar system. Juno is going there as our emissary - to interpret what Jupiter has to say,” says Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.
Though Juno was not the first mission to orbit Jupiter, it was the first to dip toward both its poles, revealing giant cyclones swirling around both the north and south ends of the king of planets. Among many other revelations, the spacecraft is also credited with shedding light on Jupiter’s magnetic field, its strange core and the iconic and long-lived “Great Red Spot,” the largest storm in our solar system.
The JunoCam web page makes Juno’s raw image data publicly accessible and allows contributors to upload modified versions of the images to highlight special features. The mission doesn’t have a team of scientists dedicated to image processing, reports Forbes, so it relies on the work of citizen scientists to create stunning and artful interpretations of the data.
NASA has decided to prolong the mission until September 2025. During this extended phase of its flight, the orbiter will circle the planet another 42 times, investigate its moons and complete the first-ever extensive exploration of Jupiter’s faint rings, reports Smithsonian Magazine.
No doubt, the mission still has more fantastic images to reveal as the Juno spacecraft ventures on.
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