Categories: AstronomyJuno MissionJupiter

The Latest Insanely Beautiful Image of Jupiter Captured by Juno

This stunning image comes from the Juno spacecraft. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created it using images from Juno's JunoCam imager. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

There’s something about Jupiter that mesmerizes those who gaze at it. It’s intricate, dazzling clouds are a visual representation of the laws of nature that’s hard to turn away from. And even though the Juno spacecraft has been at Jupiter for almost three years now, and has delivered thousands of images of the gas giant’s colourful, churning clouds, we can’t seem to satisfy our appetite.

Kevin M. Gill is a software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Kevin created this beautiful image of Jupiter out of four images taken by the Juno spacecraft’s JunoCam Imager. The Juno images were captured at heights between 8600 and 18600 km (5400 and 8600 miles) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, during Juno’s 20th science pass on May 29th, 2019.

Juno’s orbit around Jupiter will be highly elliptical as it contends with Jupiter’s powerful radiation belts. Image: NASA/JPL

Part of Juno’s mission to Jupiter is centered around JunoCam. JunoCam is not a part of the spacecraft’s scientific instrumentation. Rather, it was included just for we regular people, so we could gaze in awe at Jupiter. NASA posts all of the raw JunoCam images on their website, and invites people to process them to create a vast collection of beautiful images.

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This isn’t Kevin’s first crack at JunoCam images. On his flickr page, there are many other gorgeous images. Not only of Jupiter but of all kinds of objects in space.

The Great Red Spot. <Click to Enlarge> Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Another gorgeous image of Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

More yummy Jupiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

A stunning image of some of the detail in Jupiter’s clouds. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Not all of Kevin’s work is on Jupiter. Since he works for NASA, he creates images of all kinds of objects in space. This is Saturn’s moon Helene created with images captured by the Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill