Blue Velvet: Jupiter's Cloud Tops Appear Azure in New Juno Image

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Senior Writer | January 5, 2018 04:30pm ET

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Citizen scientists processed this image of Jupiter's cloud tops using data from NASA's Juno probe.
Credit: Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran


Jupiter's twirling, swirling cloud tops look like a sheet of blue velvet in a new image from NASA's Juno probe.

The image was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using raw data from the JunoCam instrument on Juno. While Jupiter's cloud tops wouldn't actually look blue to an observer hovering above the planet, the image processing allows our eyes to see the contours of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere — details that aren't always visible in other images. 

Juno captured this snapshot on Dec. 16, 2017, when it was 8,292 miles (13,345 kilometers) — a little more than Earth's diameter — above the tops of Jupiter's clouds. The dark side of the planet just barely creeps into the image, in the upper-right corner.

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