This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole was created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Surreal Pictures Show Jupiter Is Even Weirder Than We Thought
Early scientific findings from the Juno spacecraft show a world of intricate clouds, intense magnetism, and a potentially eroding core.
The solar system’s biggest planet just keeps getting more spectacular—and more confoundingly mysterious.
While we’ve known for centuries that Jupiter is snazzily decorated with colorful, cloudy bands and stormy splotches, the images coming back from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since last July, reveal filigreed clouds unlike anything else in the solar system.
Now, early science results from the Juno mission, reported in 46 papers published today in Science and Geophysical Research Letters, are also painting a picture of a planet that doesn’t work the way scientists thought it would, from the tops of its clouds to a potentially oversized, eroding core.
“I think everyone expected we would learn a lot, but I don’t
