The Big Dipper by Juno

The Big Dipper as imaged on March 21, 2012, by the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS Note: For more information, see NASA's Juno Spacecraft Images Big Dipper.

Jupiter Jet Stream

Following the path of one of Jupiter's jet streams, a line of v-shaped chevrons travels west to east just above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Most of the planet is unfolded here in a single flat map made on December 11 and 12, 2000, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Jupiter. At the left, the chevrons run into another storm called the South Equatorial Disturbance (SED).

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Note: For more information, see Cassini Spies Wave Rattling Jet Stream on Jupiter.

Io

This is the highest resolution color picture taken so far [as of that date] of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. At 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) per picture element, the fiery satellite is seen against a backdrop of Jupiter's cloud tops, which appear blue in this false-color composite. Among the surprises seen on the moon's surface are several small, distinctly greenish patches and subtle violet hues at the cores and margins of bright sulfur dioxide-rich regions (like the one in the lower right). Dark spots, many flagged by bright red pyroclastic deposits, (deposits from explosive ejecta), mark the sites of current volcanic activity. Most of Io's riotous color is due to the presence of sulfur compounds, but the dark materials that make up the flows and calderas are probably silicate rock.

North is to the top of the picture. The images used to construct this composite were taken in the 1-micron, green and violet filters of the solid state imaging camera system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The images were taken on March 29, 1998 at a range of 294,000 kilometers (about 183,000 miles).

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Jupiter's Great Red Spot

This Voyager 2 image shows the region of Jupiter extending from the equator to the southern polar latitudes in the neighborhood of the Great Red Spot. A white oval, different from the one observed in a similar position at the time of the Voyager 1 encounter, is situated south of the Great Red Spot. The region of white clouds now extends from east of the red spot and around its northern boundary, preventing small cloud vortices from circling the feature. The disturbed region west of the red spot has also changed since the equivalent Voyager 1 image. It shows more small scale structure and cloud vortices being formed out of the wave structures. The picture was taken on July 3, 1979 from 6 million kilometers (3.72 million miles).

Photo credit: NASA/JPL

Rotation of Jupiter

Jupiter observed with the 1 meter telescope at the Pic du Midi observatory and a Basler Scout Camera; images taken between October 10 and October 15, 2011.

Video credit: S2P/IMCCE/OPM/JL Dauvergne/Elie Rousset/Eric Meza/Philippe Tosi/François Colas/Jean Pajus/Xavi Nogués/Emil Kraaikamp

Jupiter and Io

Jupiter's four largest satellites, including Io, the golden ornament in front of Jupiter in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, have fascinated Earthlings ever since Galileo Galilei discovered them in 1610 in one of his first astronomical uses of the telescope. This true-color composite frame, made from narrow angle images taken on December 12, 2000, captures Io and its shadow in transit against the disk of Jupiter. The distance of the spacecraft from Jupiter was 19.5 million kilometers. The image scale of the high resolution image is 117 kilometers per pixel. The entire body of Io, about the size of Earth's Moon, is periodically flexed as it speeds around Jupiter and feels, as a result of its non-circular orbit, the periodically changing gravitational pull of the planet. The heat arising in Io's interior from this continual flexure makes it the most volcanically active body in the solar system, with more than 100 active volcanoes. The white and reddish colors on its surface are due to the presence of different sulfurous materials. The black areas are silicate rocks.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Earth and Moon, by Juno

On its way to the biggest planet in the solar system -- Jupiter, NASA's Juno spacecraft took time to capture its home planet and its natural satellite -- the Moon.

"This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special perspective of our role and place in the universe. We see a humbling yet beautiful view of ourselves."

The image was taken by the spacecraft’s camera, JunoCam, on August 26 when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. The image was taken as part of the mission team’s checkout of the Juno spacecraft. The team is conducting its initial detailed checks on the spacecraft’s instruments and subsystems after its launch on August 5.

Juno covered the distance from Earth to the Moon (about 250,000 miles or 402,000 kilometers) in less than one day's time. It will take the spacecraft another five years and 1,740 million miles (2,800 million kilometers) to complete the journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft will orbit the planet's poles 33 times and use its eight science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover to learn more about its origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

The solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:25 a.m. PDT (12:25 p.m. EDT) on August 5 to begin its five-year journey to Jupiter.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech