They reveal stormy conditions, high clouds and a unusual blue hue on the planet. The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency, took images of Jupiter’s north and south polar regions in infrared wavelengths.
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Jupiter, a gas giant, is believed to have been the first planet to form after the sun. Speaking about the Juno mission to establish how Jupiter was formed, Dr Nichols said: “Knowing where Jupiter formed in the solar system tells us about how the other planets formed afterwards, so it’s all about the story of how the planets formed”. While analysis of the data is still underway, some unique discoveries have already been made.
“This image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter”, he said in a statement.
“We’re seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features”, he added.
One of the most notable findings of these first-ever pictures of Jupiter’s north and south poles is something that the JunoCam imager did not see.
‘There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that.
NASA said: “The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique”.
But perhaps the most memorable observation of Juno’s maiden flyby was this acoustic rendition of the planet’s ghostly radio emissions, picked up by the Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment (Waves) instrument.
“JIRAM is getting under Jupiter’s skin, giving us our first infrared close-ups of the planet”, said Alberto Adriani, JIRAM co-investigator from Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome.
Saturn contains a powerful hexagonal storm spinning at its north pole, but the latest pictures have shown that Jupiter doesn’t have such a vortex. Unique views of Jupiter’s bright southern lights were also sent back.
“In order to do that we need to know about the interior structure of Jupiter and how the atmosphere works and the composition of Jupiter, and that’s what the goal of Juno is”. Now JIRAM will allow studying the aurora’s morphology and dynamics. First, it’s blue. It also has a shape vastly different from other gas giants in the solar system. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Their total generation capability at Jupiter is of 486 W, declining to 420 W at the end of the mission due to radiation degradation.
2, NASA released the first images from the Juno spacecraft’sclose approach of Jupiter, which occurred August 27. It arrived at Jupiter and entered into its orbit in July 2016. It will be a while yet before scientists are able to determine what is going on inside Jupiter’s hexagon.
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Juno is the first craft to fly above and below Jupiter at speeds of 130,000mph.
