NASA's JunoCam took a mesmerizing snap of Jupiter that makes the gigantic planet appear like a work of art by a post-Impressionist painter.
An Artsy Take On Jupiter
The different planets of the solar system all have their distinct beauty, but this particular image of Jupiter makes it pretty special.
According to NASA, Juno captured the featured color-enhanced photo on May 23 at 10:23 p.m. It was during the spacecraft's 13th close flyby of the planet, at that time just 9,600 miles away.
Swirling cloud systems make up much of the image, which was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran. To create the painting-like image, the pair used data from the JunoCam imager, adjusting the colors to better portray the depths of the clouds that are swirling over the planet.
More Than Just A Pretty Image
JunoCam's images allow scientists to take a closer look at the planet's details. In this particular one, the turbulent cloud systems rippling across Jupiter's vast expanse are in the spotlight.
NASA explains that the darker clouds are found deeper in the planet's atmosphere, while the brighter ones are higher. These bright clouds are likely to be ammonia or a mixture of ammonia and water, along with a smattering of other unknown chemical ingredients.
Near the bottom of the photo is a bright oval that's particularly eye-catching. NASA says that this feature is detected as entirely white in observations using ground-based telescopes.
"However, with JunoCam we can observe the fine-scale structure within this weather system, including additional structures within it," the agency reports. "There is not significant motion apparent in the interior of this feature; like the Great Red Spot, its winds probably slows down greatly toward the center."
The public is invited to check out and even tweak and process the different images available at the mission's website.
NASA Highlights Planets' Beauty
It's not the first time that the space agency has drawn the public's attention to the awe-inspiring beauty of the gas giant.
In March 2018, NASA featured another image processed by Eichstädt that made Jupiter look like a giant version of Earth. The agency dubbed the photo as the "Twilight Zone" as the photo captured the sun-lit regions of the planet as well as the darker "night" parts.
Recently, a surreal enhanced image of Mars' unusual blue dunes also made headlines, introducing a new facet to the Red Planet.
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