Ever seen Jupiter’s poles before NASA’s Juno mission?
Don’t worry, no one else had either!
Jupiter’s northern pole. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
When Juno flew by Jupiter late last month, the mission achieved the first of 36 orbital flybys. The spacecraft flew approximately 2,500 miles above the giant planet’s clouds.
The largest member of our planetary family holds some pretty big surprises. While blue isn’t normally the color that comes to mind when thinking of Jupiter, that’s what Juno showed in images it sent back of the north pole. Without the familiar bands of orange and white, it might take a moment to realize that this indeed is Jupiter. The north pole of Jupiter also does not have a hexagon like the north pole of Saturn.
Check out the southern aurora as captured by the Italian Space Agency’s instrument, the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM). The instrument revealed this aurora for the first time.
Jupiter’s southern aurora. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
There are also radio transmissions coming from above Jupiter that were heard previously, but never from up close. Juno’s Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment (Waves) was able to record them, and additionally all eight instruments collected data during the flyby.
The Juno spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin and is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program. The mission will give us a greater understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere and help scientists figure out the amount of water in its atmosphere. In addition, Juno will map the magnetic and gravity fields and will seek to advance our understanding about how our solar system began.
Learn more about Juno at NASA.gov.