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Gorgeous Images of the Planet Jupiter (24 photos)

Launched in 2011, NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter arrived in mid-2016, and the spacecraft maneuvered into a 53-day orbit around the gas giant. The JunoCam imaging instrument, one of nine scientific instruments on board, has been returning red, green, and blue filtered images of Jupiter to Earth, that NASA is encouraging anyone to download, process, and share. Citizen scientists like Seán Doran and Gerald Eichstädt have been finessing these images, enhancing the existing contrasts, and boosting the colors to create really amazing views of our solar system’s largest planet. Cloudtops pop into view, swirls and structure and depth become more apparent, the enormous roiling atmosphere seems almost within grasp. Many thanks to Seán Doran for sharing these images here, and to the teams involved in bringing them to Earth at NASA, the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS).