A powerful new picture of Jupiter posted by a citizen scientist shows the planet looming large with the shadow of its biggest moon Ganymede blanketing its clouds.
The image comes from Kevin M. Gill, who posted copies on Twitter and Flickr after analyzing data from the Juno spacecraft’s 20th close flyby of May 2019.
Like many other NASA missions, Juno officials regularly release raw images of what the spacecraft is examining, allowing other people to use the imagery with credit. The mission also has a dedicated imager for citizen scientist requests, called JunoCam.
Related: Juno snaps stunning photos of crescent Jupiter and Ganymede
Juno arrived at Jupiter in 2016 on a greater mission to better measure and understand the atmosphere of Jupiter, including its shrinking Great Red Spot, complex storm systems and many bands of clouds.
The hope is the insights the mission generates can help scientists understand how large planets work more generally, including distant exoplanets that are difficult for telescopes to gain much detail about.
NASA suggests that during this 20th flyby, the spacecraft got at least as close as 9,200 miles (14,800 kilometers) above the cloud tops of the giant planet. Juno can only perform such maneuvers briefly due to the intense radiation at Jupiter.
The spacecraft has so far outlasted the radiation in both its primary mission and its first extended mission. Juno is now working on its second extended mission to peer far into Jupiter’s clouds, using a polar-orbiting view that no previous spacecraft was able to use.
Coincidentally, NASA released images of both Jupiter and Ganymede last month from Juno, with Gill being involved in creating the Jupiter image. The rugged Ganymede surface was visible during a June 2021 pass when Juno flew only 650 miles (1,046 kilometers) above Ganymede’s surface. Officials also released Gill’s backlit view of Jupiter, based on data Juno took during Juno’s 39th close pass of Jupiter on Jan. 12.
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