Traveling
above Jupiter at more than 130,000 miles per hour, NASA's $1 billion Juno
probe took its ninth set of stunning flyby images. But
the sun slipped between the giant
planet and Earth for more than a week, blocking the spacecraft from
beaming home its precious bounty of data.
Now
that the conjunction is over, however, new raw image data from Juno's ninth
perijove — as the spacecraft's high-speed
flybys are called — has poured in. Researchers posted it all online on Tuesday, and a community of
amateurs and professionals has been busily processing
the data to yield colorful and stunning new pictures of Jupiter.
“Brand
new Jupiter pics from @NASAJuno Perijove 09! What a blimmin'
gorgeous/diabolical planet,” Seán Doran, a UK-based graphic artist who regularly
processes NASA images, tweeted on
Tuesday.
Below
are some close-up images of Jupiter, along with other unbelievable views
captured from earlier
perijoves.
In
the most recent flyby, as with the previous eight, Juno's flyby started over
Jupiter's north pole.
The
spacecraft then swept within a few thousand miles of the gas giant, capturing
stunning high-resolution views of its cloud tops.
At
its closest approach to Jupiter during each flyby, the
robot briefly becomes the fastest human-made object in the solar
system, reaching speeds of around 130,000 miles per hour.
Then
Juno flew back out into deep space, passing over Jupiter's south pole on its
exit. Churning storms at the poles constantly change their appearance.
Researchers
upload the raw data sent by the probe to the mission's website.
There,
enthusiasts take the drab, mostly gray image data and process it all into
true-to-life color photos.
Many
snapshots of Jupiter take on an artistic quality.
Others
dazzle with their detail of the planet's thick cloud bands and powerful storms.
Some
of the tempests are large enough to swallow planet Earth — or at least a
good chunk of it.
The
planet's atmosphere is a turbulent mess of hydrogen and helium gases.
There
are also traces of molecules like ammonia, methane, sulfur, and water, which
give the clouds different colors and properties.
The
mixture sometimes creates features that look like faces (as seen on the left in
this image).
Other
times, shining-white clouds fill up most of a band.
Many
cloud bands have features called chevrons. These atmospheric disturbances blow
at several hundreds of miles per hour and sometimes zig-zag through a band, or
punch through into others.
In
this older view of Jupiter, from Juno's eighth perijove, two cloud bands battle
for dominance — one of which contains a swirling storm many times larger than a
hurricane on Earth.
The
spacecraft will continue to document Jupiter for as long as NASA can keep it
going. But not forever.
Beautiful images. Thank you NASA.
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