NASA’s latest image of Jupiter is perhaps its most stunning yet for the simple reason that it shows us a side of the gas giant that we almost never see: The south pole.
This incredible image was compiled by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset who built the image using the publicly available images and data captured by the Juno probe currently orbiting the gas giant.
The image you’re looking at was capture by JunoCam back on the 11th December, 2016. As a testament to Jupiter’s almost unimaginable size, the image was taken at an altitude of 32,400 miles.
While the Jupiter’s equator is a vast ribbon of browns and oranges, the gas giant’s south pole is a completely different story.
Cyclones swirl around the south pole, and white oval storms can be seen near the limb ― the apparent edge of the planet.
Each of the small brighter circles are believed the be vast lightning thunderstorms.
Facts about Jupiter:
Jupiter is a giant ball of gas 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive.
It takes 12-years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun but rotates so quickly that a single day lasts just 10 hours.
In many ways Jupiter has its own mini solar system. Its composition is very similar to that of a star: hydrogen and helium, while its sheer size means that it has four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) and over 60 smaller objects known to be in orbit.
While you can’t normally see them, Jupiter also has a huge system of rings much like Saturn.