This image captures the swirling cloud formations around the south pole of Jupiter, looking up toward the equatorial region.
NASA's Juno spacecraft took the color-enhanced image during its
eleventh close flyby of the gas giant planet on Feb. 7 at 7:11 a.m. PST
(10:11 a.m. EST). At the time, the spacecraft was 74,896 miles (120,533
kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter's clouds at 84.9 degrees south
latitude.
Citizen scientist Gerald Gerald Eichstädt processed this
image using data from the JunoCam imager.
This image was created by
reprocessing raw JunoCam data using trajectory and pointing data from
the spacecraft. This image is one in a series of images taken in an
experiment to capture the best results for illuminated parts of
Jupiter's polar region.
To make features more visible in Jupiter's
terminator -- the region where day meets night -- the Juno team
adjusted JunoCam so that it would perform like a portrait photographer
taking multiple photos at different exposures, hoping to capture one
image with the intended light balance. For JunoCam to collect enough
light to reveal features in Jupiter's dark twilight zone, the much
brighter illuminated day-side of Jupiter becomes overexposed with the
higher exposure.
JunoCam's raw images are available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam for the public to peruse and process into image products.
NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Juno mission for the principal
investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San
Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, built the spacecraft. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages
JPL for NASA.
Source: JPL-Caltech/Space Images
