Explanation:
What would it look like to fly over the North Pole of Jupiter?
A fictional
animation made from real images and data captured by NASA's
Juno
spacecraft shows an answer.
Since the pole is presently in shadow, the video uses
infrared
light emitted by
Jupiter -- specifically an
infrared
color where the hottest features glows the brightest.
As
the animation starts, Juno zooms in on the enormous world.
Soon, one of the
eight cyclones orbiting the North Pole is featured.
One by one, all eight cyclones circling the pole are inspected,
each the size of an entire continent on
Earth, and each containing bumpy and fragmented spiral
walls.
The virtual trip ends with a zoom out.
Studying Jovian cyclones helps humanity to
better understand dangerous
storm systems that occur here on Earth.
Juno has recently concluded another
close pass by
Jupiter --
Perijove 12 --
and seems healthy enough to complete several more of the two-month orbits.
