A NASA space probe orbiting our solar system’s biggest planet has snapped incredibly detailed data of its complex and powerful storms, which a citizen scientist then used to develop a stunning image of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
According to the space agency, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill used readings captured by the Juno spacecraft to create the striking image. Juno’s on-board imaging technology recorded the data while traveling some 5,300 miles (8,500 kilometers) over the clouds on November 3, 2019.
While the planet, a gas giant, is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, NASA says that scientists suspect that some of the strange coloring in the storm clouds could come from sulfur or phosphorus gases that originate within Jupiter.
The planet’s turbulent atmosphere boasts some enormous storm systems, including this vortex about 1,200 miles wide and spinning in the region known as the ‘north north north north temperate belt’. Juno’s raw image data is available to the public to download and process into images.
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