The Most Spectacular Images From Juno’s Latest Close Flyby of Jupiter

Nov 07, 2024

Jeremy Gray

Colorful and swirling cloud patterns on Jupiter's atmosphere are shown, featuring a prominent white circular storm in the center, with various shades of blue, brown, and orange throughout the gaseous landscape under a dark sky. — Jupiter PJ 66 27 | Credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently made its 66th flyby, or “perijove,” of the gas giant, Jupiter, returning many spectacular raw images to Earth. While NASA processes many photos from the Juno mission, community editors are a significant part of the photography efforts, and the latest community submissions are incredible.

Juno entered Jupiter’s polar orbit on July 5, 2016, and since then, has been performing detailed investigations into the planet’s gravitational and magnetic fields, atmosphere, and weather, aiming to learn more about how the planet formed and its nature. Juno is not the first spacecraft to orbit the gas giant, following the nuclear-powered NASA Galileo orbiter that circled Jupiter from 1995 until 2003. Juno was scheduled to perform a mission duration similar to Galileo, although Juno is still going strong, more than six years after its planned shutdown.

Until then, Juno continues to make close flybys of Jupiter. Its 66th flyby last month took the spacecraft close to Amalthea, the fifth-largest Jovian moon. Juno’s primary imager, JunoCam, is a two-megapixel visible-light camera with four onboard filters, three of which are for different wavelengths of visible light.

As Juno sends data back to Earth — at a rate of about 325 bits per second — scientists, professionals, and citizens alike, can download the raw data and create their own processed photos. From just perijove 66, there are already four pages of great community submissions.

One of the most striking examples, seen above, comes from Gerald Eichstädt and Thomas Thomopoulous, which Eichstädt notes features the “enhancement of colors.” The duo also has many more images, two of which are featured below.

A swirling, colorful close-up of Jupiter's atmosphere, showcasing its turbulent clouds in hues of brown, orange, blue, and white, with various circular patterns and storms resembling artistic brushstrokes. — Jupiter PJ 66 25 | Credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY

A swirling, abstract pattern of dark and light shades resembling a turbulent storm, with circular formations and wavy lines, reminiscent of a painting or outer space phenomena. — Jupiter PJ 66 27 | Credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY

Frequent contributor Jackie Branc shared a handful of photos from perijove 66, showing Jupiter from slightly different angles than Eichstädt and Thomopoulous and with a different approach to color editing.

A high-resolution image of Jupiter showcasing its swirling clouds and vivid colors. The upper half displays bands of red, brown, and white, with complex swirling patterns throughout. The bottom is in shadow, highlighting the planet's curvature. — Jupiter PJ66 Jet N5 | NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jackie Branc © CC BY

A striking image of Jupiter's northern hemisphere, showcasing its swirling clouds and intense storm systems in hues of blue, brown, and white. The planet's vast, dynamic atmosphere is depicted against the blackness of space. — Jupiter PJ66 Jet N6 | NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jackie Branc © CC BY

A detailed view of Jupiter's swirling cloud patterns, showcasing various shades of blues, whites, and grays. The image highlights the planet's turbulent atmosphere with several circular and spiral formations. — Jupiter PJ66 Folded Planetary Region | NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jackie Branc © CC BY

Jupiter’s next flyby, perijove 67, is slated for November 25. The final flyby of 2024, perijove 68, will occur on December 28.

The plan is for Juno’s 76th perijove on September 15, 2025, to be its last. After this flyby, the spacecraft will nosedive into the planet it has orbited since 2015.

A sequence of images showing Jupiter from different angles, highlighting its swirling cloud patterns and varying colors. The planet's iconic bands and storms are visible, with a close focus on its poles in several shots.

NASA’s next Jupiter spacecraft, the Europa Clipper, launched last month on October 14 and is expected to reach Jupiter in April 2030 after a lengthy journey of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers). Europa Clipper is expected to perform at least 44 close flybys of Europa, Jupiter’s most famous moon and potential home to life.

Image credits: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSS. Individual image processors are credited in the photo captions.