5 Stunning New Photos Of Jupiter From NASA’s Most Underrated Mission
The next era of space photography is here
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2022 is shaping up to be a banner year for deep space photography. The successful placement of the James Webb Space Telescope generated tremendous amounts of excitement around the world. However, while humanity’s newest space telescope continues to be brought up to speed another mission has been quietly whirring away in the cosmos.
NASA’s Juno mission was launched in 2011 and reached the Jovian system in 2016. Juno’s mission has been to study Jupiter and its moons in greater detail than ever before. One side effect of the mission has been a slew of new breathtaking photographs of Jupiter and its moons that have been slowly released by NASA over the past few months.
Since 2016, the Juno probe has been faithfully circling the solar system’s largest planet. It is gathering new data about Jupiter’s atmosphere and probing deep into the mysteries surrounding Jupiter’s most iconic moons — all the while, taking photographs.
The Juno mission will continue to make close flybys of Jupiter until 2024 and with each new pass of the gas giant, we get more stunning photographs.
1. Little Red Spot
This image features a small but poignant spot reminiscent of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. This spot is small but very distinct sitting amidst Jupiter’s swirling bands.
The original image was taken in September of 2021 and released to the public in November. Juno was flying over 16,000 miles above Jupiter’s clouds when it snapped this incredible shot.
2. Artistic Storms
This photograph shows two massive storms rotating around each other in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The image looks like something drawn by human hands rather than painted by nature. It is a stunning backdrop that would make an amazing feature on any…
