Nasa releases close up image of Jupiter (Picture)

Nasa released a close-up view of Jupiter that captures the turbulent region just west of the Great Red Spot in the South Equatorial Belt, with resolution better than any previous pictures from Earth or other spacecraft.

The photo featured above was taken by Juno on December 11th, 2016. It was enhanced by citizen scientist Sergey Dushkin, as part of the JunoCam community’s project to make the spacecraft’s raw images look even more stunning than they already are. Here, we see a turbulent region located in Jupiter’s South Equatorial belt looking like a cup of coffee with cream rather than a raging storm. It’s admittedly kind of pleasant.

Juno has been orbiting its gaseous companion since July 4th, 2016. On February 17th, NASA announced the spacecraft would remain in a 53.5-day orbit for the rest of its mission due to an engine anomaly, which is mildly frustrating, since it probably won’t be able to perform as many high quality data collection flybys as it would have with shorter orbits.

That said, before Juno completes its mission, we’ll get lots of up-close-and-personal looks at our favorite gas giant. Get ready for many more lock screen backgrounds!

Agencies/Canadajournal