Juno Provides New Lessons From Jupiter

A view of Jupiter’s south pole, which is covered in cyclones that appear as oval features here. The storms, shown in images taken by a JunoCam instrument on three orbits, span up to 1,000 km (620 mi.) in diameter. The images were combined to show areas in daylight, enhanced color and stereographic projection. One surprising finding: The south and north poles look different. “We are questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage. Over the next year, we are going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?” says Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

JunoCam provides a sequence of enhanced-color images that span the entire planet, beginning with the north pole in the center. The third and fourth images show the north polar region rotating out of view, and the midlatitudes emerging. A band of turbulent clouds gives way to views of the equator in the seventh and eighth images, taken just 4 min. apart. From there, Juno’s images document the southern hemisphere. The 12th and 13th images show white ovals known as the planet’s “string of pearls.” The final image shows Jupiter’s south pole.

Juno continues to pass by Jupiter, the most massive planet in our Solar System. It launched Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral and arrived July 4, 2016. The spacecraft’s microwave radiometer samples thermal microwave radiation from the atmosphere. So far, the data suggest ammonia in the atmosphere is variable and continues to increase hundreds of miles down—as far as Juno can see with the instrument.

Using data from JunoCam, citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson processed an enhanced color view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere—showing a white oval that is a counterclockwise-rotating storm. The image was taken by JunoCam during a Feb. 2 flyby at about 14,500 km above the planet.

The image here on the edge of Jupiter features several regions including Jupiter’s “string of pearls,” which are massive storms, and the South Temperate Belt Specter, where several atmospheric conditions come together. The odd shape of this image is a result of Juno being so close to the planet that the sides are cut off.