Psychedelic New Image From NASA’s Visit To Europa Last Week Is Just One Of Some Beautiful Art Inspired By Jupiter
This highly stylized view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was created by reprocessing an image captured … [+]
In the wake of NASA’s Juno spacecraft’s incredibly close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Europa on September 29, 2022 there’s been a flurry of incredible images.
While a few have come from NASA itself, most have been the work of a dedicated and creative team of volunteer image processors. Perhaps the most notable was this image (top) from citizen scientist Fernando Garcia Navarro, who downloaded and processed an image that fellow citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill had previously worked on, producing a psychedelic rendering he has titled “Fall Colors of Europa.”
In orbit of the giant planet since 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft sends back astonishing new images every six weeks. They are made freely available to citizen scientists and image-wranglers to download, remix and then upload again either to social media and/or to the Juno mission’s gallery.
“Storm Knots” by Ryan Cornell takes Jupiter’s clouds as seen in raw images by NASA’s Juno spacecraft … [+]
On there you’ll find incredible images of Jupiter’s bands, clouds, mesmerizing storms and even of its four giant moons. Some of the best include Jupiter’s “racing stripes,” its giant jet-stream, a classic “Jupiter Marble” portrait, and a “churning” Jupiter.
However, you’ll also find something else—art.
Remixed, combined, colored and generally messed around with, the end results over these past years have been magnificent.
“Starting with our flyby of Earth back in 2013, Juno citizen scientists have been invaluable in processing the numerous images we get with Juno,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Center in San Antonio. “During each flyby of Jupiter, and now its moons, their work provides a perspective that draws upon both science and art. They are a crucial part of our team, leading the way by using our images for new discoveries.”
“Jupiter Cube” by Navaneeth Krishnan.
At Jupiter since July 5, 2016, Juno has been in an elliptical polar orbit to study the planet’s atmosphere and magnetosphere. It spends most of its time away from the planet taking measurements.
Each dip close to Jupiter is called a perijove, which is Greek for the extreme points in the orbit of one body around another. During its brief flyby it gets super-close to the planet’s cloud-tops to take some astonishing photos.
Jupiter’s cyclones in exagerratted colors by Navaneeth Krishnan.
The spacecraft’s JunoCam shoots images as it spins using its basic two-megapixel, 58° field of view camera. JunoCam is the world’s first “outreach camera.” It sends its images back to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network.
Some of the images feature the “Great Red Spot,” a 400-years old storm that’s twice the size of Earth, and easily the biggest in the solar system. Its winds can be as fast as 425 miles per hour.
SEEING A CLOUD FORMATION UPON CLOUDS
Other feature Jupiter’s four biggest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, which were first seen by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in January 1610 though his homemade telescope.
Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers missions. It launched on August 5, 2011, on an Atlas V rocket, reached Jupiter in July 2016. It’s now on an extended mission and should be healthy into the mid-to-late 2020s.
A FAIRY TALE FROM JUNO!
Juno’s next close flyby of Jupiter, perijove 46, will take place on November 6, 2022.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
