NASA’s Juno orbiter captured a beautiful image during its 25th close flyby of Jupiter in February 2020.
This image of Jupiter was taken on February 17, 2020 as Juno performed its 25th close flyby of the gas giant. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 25,120 km (15,610 miles) from the planet’s cloud tops at a latitude of about 71 degrees North. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt.
Juno launched on August 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the ambitious mission of finally seeing beneath the dense clouds covering Jupiter.
On July 4, 2016, the robotic probe finally reached the giant planet’s orbit.
The spacecraft is in a polar orbit around Jupiter, and the majority of each orbit is spent well away from the planet.
But, once every 53 days, Juno’s trajectory approaches Jupiter from above its north pole, where it begins a 2-hr transit — from pole to pole — flying north to south.
During these flybys, the orbiter is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of the giant planet and studying its auroras to learn more about its origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
The newly-released image was taken on February 17, 2020, at 12:29 p.m. EST, at a distance of 25,120 km (15,610 miles) from the planet’s cloud tops at a latitude of about 71 degrees North.
“Notable features in this view are the long, thin bands that run through the center of the image from top to bottom,” Juno team members said.
“Juno has observed these long streaks since its first close pass by Jupiter in 2016.”
“The streaks are layers of haze particles that float above the underlying cloud features,” they explained.
“Scientists don’t yet know exactly what these hazes are made of or how they form.”
“Two jet streams in Jupiter’s atmosphere flank either side of the region where the narrow bands of haze typically appear, and some researchers speculate those jet streams may influence the formation of the high hazes.”
