New stunning close-ups of Jupiter have been captured by NASA‘s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011 as part of the New Frontiers Program which conducts medium-scale solar system exploration missions.
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Orbiting Jupiter since 2016, Juno takes an elliptical path around the gas giant, reaching the polar regions around every five weeks where it can place a transmission back to Earth. On its 46th fly-by, images taken by its two-megapixel camera have been artistically enhanced to create captivating images of the largest planet in our solar system. The swirling marble-like image above is one of Jupiter’s northern circumpolar cyclones which feature a radius of around 1,000 kilometers and have been ongoing since they were fast observed five years ago.
Looking ahead, upcoming missions to Jupiter include NASA’s Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) which will launch in October 2024 and April 2023 respectively to mainly learn more about the planet’s moons.
More official shots can be found on the JunoCam website. Juno’s next flyby will take place on December 15.
