Earlier this week, NASA revealed some incredible new images. These offered a new look at Jupiter and were captured by Juno. Yes, a NASA spacecraft on March 27 sent back an image of a “Dark Spot” found on the fifth planet, Jupiter, in our solar system.
Juno Is NASA’s Mission To Jupiter
The Juno spacecraft is part of NASA’s mission to study Jupiter. Following a 5-years journey through space, the spacecraft reached its orbit on July 04th, 2016. Since then, it has managed to successfully carry out five flybys of the planet.
Following such an event, but also in general, Juno beamed back several data on Jupiter. This included information on its cloud structures, composition, its magnetic fields, and magnificent auroras.
On March 27th, the spacecraft carried out its fifth successful flyby and fourth science pass. Juno was closest to the planet at around 4:52 a.m. or 08:52 GMT. At that moment, the spacecraft was some 2,700 miles over the gas giant’s cloud tops.
Like a galaxy of swirling storms, this color-enhanced image of Jupiter was acquired by our @NASAJuno spacecraft: https://t.co/721smt4ifq pic.twitter.com/Mk5Hy7prZy
— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2017
This altitude allowed its instruments to collect data on Jupiter’s atmosphere, electromagnetic fields, and also its gravity.
“In ground-based images it was difficult to tell that it is a dark storm,” reported NASA.
NASA revealed citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko enhanced the colour to bring out the rich detail in the storm and surrounding clouds.
“Just south of the dark storm is a bright, oval-shaped storm with high, bright, white clouds, reminiscent of a swirling galaxy. As a final touch, he rotated the image 90 degrees, turning the picture into a work of art,” NASA added.
This enhanced-color image of a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter seems to reveal a Jovian “galaxy” of swirling storms.