NASA shares picture of Jupiter's colourful skies captured by Juno

NASA recently shared a picture captured by its Juno spacecraft on Twitter. The picture displayed the swirling clouds in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere, ‘Jet N4’. The biggest planet in our solar system, Jupiter spins once every 10 hours. This fast rotation of the planet creates strong jet streams, separating its clouds into dark belts and bright zones. As per NASA, more than a dozen prevailing winds sweep over Jupiter, some reaching more than 300 miles per hour (480 kilometers per hour) at the equator. 

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Citizen scientist creates colour from a raw image 

Björn Jónsson, a citizen scientist used data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager to create an enhanced-color image of the Jupiter skies. As Juno performed its 22nd close flyby of Jupiter the original raw image was taken on September 11, 2019, at 8:31 p.m. PDT (11:31 p.m. EDT). At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 7,540 miles (12,140 kilometers) from the cloud tops at a latitude of 45 degrees. This is how the raw image of the northern hemisphere 'Jet N4' looked like; 

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NASA's Juno Mission

NASA’s Juno mission is about exploring the planet Jupiter and to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s origins. According to NASA, Juno uses a spinning, solar-powered spacecraft in a highly elliptical polar orbit that avoids most of Jupiter’s high-radiation regions. The main spacecraft Juno was built by Lockheed Martin, but its instruments and components came from all over the world. As per NASA’s information, the construction of Juno was done extremely carefully. The scientists worked in a clean room and wore special suits that prevent dirt, dust, and hair from contaminating the craft. They also simulated the conditions that Juno may encounter in test chambers.  

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