During its 43rd close flyby, on July 5, 2022- NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds.
Using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft, citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created two images. Juno captured the raw image at a latitude of roughly 50 degrees, nearly 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. In the north. In relation to the planet, the spacecraft was moving at a speed of around 130,000 miles per hour (209,000 kilometers per hour).
The first image (on the left) was processed to roughly represent the colors that a person looking down from Juno would see. The second image (right) was created using the same raw data. Still, Jónsson digitally enhanced it to improve color saturation and contrast, sharpen fine details, and reduce noise and compression artifacts common in raw images.
The three-dimensional nature of Jupiter’s swirling vortices, the color variation caused by different chemical compositions, and the small, bright “pop-up” clouds that form in the higher parts of the atmosphere are some of the most fascinating features of Jupiter’s atmosphere that are revealed.