Juno spacecraft sends incredible photo of storms on Jupiter

On July 5, NASA's Juno spacecraft completed its 43rd flyby of Jupiter and made a spectacular new snapshot of this huge planet close-up. It allows you to look at the North Pole, where powerful cyclones swirl, "churning" the atmosphere.

The shot was taken when Juno was 25,100 kilometers above Jupiter's clouds at a latitude of about 84 degrees. The image was processed by scientist Brian Swift, who improved the colors, increasing the visibility of the helicity of the patterns. These storms produce powerful eddies that can be up to 50 kilometers high and hundreds of kilometers across.

Each of Jupiter's poles has its own peculiar arrangement of storms. At the South Pole, there are usually six cyclones, each of which is comparable in size to the continental United States - one in the center and five around it in the form of an almost perfect pentagon. All rotating clockwise.

The North Pole is even weirder: there, scientists have identified nine storms, eight of which are lined up around one in the center, and they all rotate counterclockwise. And in high latitudes, other vortices rage around both of these central polar plexuses of storms.

Using data from Juno, scientists have determined the mechanism by which these storms remain separate, rather than merging into one megastorm, as happens at the poles of Saturn.

The Juno mission, which began in 2016, has been extended through September 2025. At the end of September 2022, the device will fly around the moon of Jupiter Europe, flying only 355 kilometers above this icy moon. So in the autumn it is worth waiting for new incredible shots.