Amateur astronomer discovers a brand new spot on Jupiter

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Amateur astronomer discovers a brand new spot on Jupiter

This image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures several storms in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. Some of these storms, including the Great Red Spot at the upper left, have

 

been churning in the planet’s atmosphere for many years, but when Juno obtained this view of Jupiter, the smaller, oval-shaped feature at the center of the image was brand

 

new.

 

NASA’s Juno team believes that the spot is a cloud of material erupting through the upper layers of the atmosphere, which happens periodically at this particular latitude.

 

This image was created by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill, using the data from the Juno spacecraft’s JunoCam. Members of the public can download raw JunoCam images and do

 

their own image processing, and are invited to upload their images to the Juno website.

 

 

According to NASA, Gill’s image above is “a map projection that combines five JunoCam images taken on June 2, 2020, between 3:56 a.m. PDT (6:56 a.m. EDT) and 4:25 a.m. PDT

 

(7:25 a.m. EDT). At the time the images were taken, Juno was between about 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers) and 59,000 miles (95,000 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops at

 

latitudes of between about 48 degrees and 67 degrees south.”

 

The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011 and arrived in orbit around Jupiter in 2016. In its time it has had to perform some dramatic maneuvers to keep its mission going,

 

having originally been planned to operate only until 2018. With its extended lifespan, the mission is continuing to gather data about Jupiter including information about its

 

atmosphere, composition, and chaotic magnetic field.

 

 

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