Powerful storms swirl around Jupiter’s north pole in stunning new images captured by NASA’s Juno probe as it approaches the giant planet on July 5.
Storms reach depths of more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) in the turbulent region Jupiter’s atmosphere It is hundreds of miles wide, NASA said in a statement (Opens in a new tab). Scientists study these storms to understand the drivers of their formation and give them their unique and amazing features.
Previous notes for Jupiter It showed that these tornadoes vary in color based on the direction in which they are spinning, as well as on their location. For example, storms that rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter and those that rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere have very different shapes and colors than those that rotate clockwise in the north and counterclockwise in the south.
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Junowhich was launched in 2011 and reached gas giant Five years later, NASA said in the statement, the images were taken during its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5. The probe orbits Jupiter in a highly elliptical orbit, completing one orbit every 43 days. At its closest, Juno is about 3,100 miles (5,000 km) close to the tops of Jupiter’s clouds. This particular image was taken when the probe was about 15,600 miles (25,100 km) from the planet.
Juno’s mission, which was originally scheduled to retire in 2021, was extended last year to at least 2025. During its remaining life, the probe will continue to focus on Jupiter’s wonderful atmosphere, and will also study the planet’s mysterious moons GanymedeAnd the EuropaAnd the IoSome of them may host microbial life.
Meanwhile, NASA is asking space enthusiasts and citizen scientists to help classify images of storms and other atmospheric phenomena captured by the JunoCam instrument as part of the Jovian Vortex Hunter (Opens in a new tab) project. Anyone with access to a mobile phone or laptop can contribute to the analysis. To date, more than 2,400 volunteers have categorized over 375,000 photos as part of the project.
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