If you follow NASA in any capacity, you may know that the $1B Juno probe reached Jupiter in July 2016 after a 5 year journey from Earth. It has since just completed its ninth flyby of the planet. Juno is equipped with special cameras to take images, as well as with various sensors to help us study Jupiter's electromagnetic field and atmosphere.
These latest photos are absolutely breathtaking! The images show Jupiter's thick cloud bands, as well as various tempests (giant, neverending storms such as the Red Spot) common on Jupiter.
Jupiter does not experience storms the way we would think of them here on Earth. This is because Jupiter is made up of gases, mostly hydrogen and helium, as well as small amounts of methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water.
Jupiter is broken down into atmospheric layers, with the outer layers being gaseous slowly transitioning into inner aqueous layers. Each layer has temperature gradients. Much like storm systems on earth, these temperature gradients influence gas flow in the upper layers, creating large gaseous storms.
Jupiter experiences hundreds of vortices at any given point in time, swirling cyclones or anticyclones that can last several days to hundreds of years.
While scientists are gaining so much irreplaceable knowledge from the Juno expedition, we still have so much more to learn. Juno is schedule to complete its fourteenth and potentially final flyby July 16, 2018, and be deorbited July 30, 2021.
These photos have been brought to life by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using data from Juno's camera. NASA publicly releases raw data captured by the probe after each flyby to allow scientists, artists, and photographers alike the chance to process these data into the beautifully vivid images you have seen in this post.
All photo credits go to: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran