No, this isn’t a painting by an artist. It’s a very real shot of a swirling storm on Jupiter, snapped by NASA's Juno spacecraft.
It was taken on February 7 from a distance of 12,195 kilometers (7,578 miles) above the cloud tops of Jupiter. While it’s a real image, processed by citizen scientist Matt Brealey, the colors have been adjusted and embossed by fellow citizen scientist Gustavo B C.
Juno took the image during its 11th flyby of the gas giant, known as Perijove 11. It’s been busy snapping images with its JunoCam ever since it entered orbit around Jupiter in July 2016, which we’ve been treated to on numerous occasions.
The $1.1-billion mission, launch in August 2011, is also now delivering in a huge way with its science mission. Thanks to Juno, we were recently able to work out what Jupiter looks like inside, discovering that its famous banding structure of storms descends down for about 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles).
It takes 53 days for Juno to orbit Jupiter, taking it from several million kilometers out to just a few thousand kilometers above the planet. Its primary science mission is due to end this year, but if funding is maintained then the mission could continue into 2021.
