Jupiter’s True Colors Show Themselves In Captivating New Enhanced Images
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been set on a journey to capture as many photos and as much information about Jupiter as possible. It turns out that Jupiter’s colors are as mystifying as its atmosphere and planetary makeup.
One community scientist has now taken the task upon himself to edit pictures snapped from the craft and turn them into colors our human eyes can better comprehend.
Björn Jónsson used images taken on Juno’s 43rd flyby of the planet, captured at at a distance of 3,300 miles from the gas giant’s toxic clouds.
The citizen scientist then refined the saturation of the pictures and enhanced the planet’s geothermal structure to clearly depict the extraordinary swirls and formation of its clouds and atmosphere.
Image PJ43_41 obtained by @NASAJuno on July 5, 2022. Approx true color/contrast and greatly exaggerated versions where contrast has been increased, color saturation increased and small scale details sharpened. Also special processing to reduce noise and compression artifacts. pic.twitter.com/RzWqsJUCQH
— Björn Jónsson (@bjorn_jons) July 21, 2022
The resulting imagery shows a beautiful and ethereal dance of blue, green, and reddish-brown ripples that can be seen billowing across the planet’s surface.
The renders even depict a detailed image of The Great Red Spot that has become one of Jupiter’s defining traits.
The renders capture the turbulent nature of the gas giant and finally give us a better peek into what the planet would actually look like if we could ever make it that far into our solar system.
Juno was set to retire in 2021, but it will continue its long and arduous journey circling Jupiter until 2025. Until then, scientists will continue to upload photographs onto JunoCam.
[via Space.com and Tech Times, images via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Björn Jónsson]
