Santa Claus isn’t the only one bearing gifts from the north pole at this time of year. NASA’s Juno orbiter also delivered a sackful of presents over the holidays, but from the pole of a different planet: Jupiter.
Every 53 days, the bus-sized spacecraft makes a close encounter with our solar system’s biggest planet, as part of a mission that was launched in 2011 and reached Jupiter in 2016.
Juno’s main mission is to study Jupiter’s magnetic field and gravitational field, to give scientists a deeper understanding of the gas giant’s internal composition. But a visible-light camera called JunoCam was included on the probe, primarily to boost public outreach and education.
The latest encounter, known as Perijove 17, occurred on Dec. 21 and went over Jupiter’s north pole. One of the scientific objectives was to take pictures of the planet’s faint aurora with Juno’s navigational camera, known as the Stellar Reference Unit.
At the same time, JunoCam captured close-up views of Jupiter’s cloud tops, providing lots of raw imagery to keep image-processing gurus busy over the holidays.
Here’s a sampling of pictures from Perijove 17:
https://twitter.com/jccwrt/status/1077677890366566400
https://twitter.com/kevinmgill/status/1077804203685244928
https://twitter.com/_TheSeaning/status/1077880165131264000
https://twitter.com/_TheSeaning/status/1077593763936194560
Happy holidays from Juno at Jupiter! This is image PJ17_17 (“PJ17 Jet N5”) obtained by @NASAJuno on December 21, 2018. Approximately true color/contrast versions and enhanced versions. pic.twitter.com/5XgahahaAP
— Björn Jónsson (@bjorn_jons) December 25, 2018
They have started coming down! #Jupiter Perijove 17 #Juno #NASA #space #science #WeareLM #photography #ChristmasEve #STEM #art
📸: NASA/SWRI/MSSS/Wil Santiago pic.twitter.com/jbGVxF0d6n— Wil Santiago (@SpaceWilS) December 24, 2018
And here are a few highlights from past perijoves. Stay tuned for more in 2019!
https://twitter.com/_TheSeaning/status/1076990782802935809
Congrats to @_TheSeaning & @NASAJuno, this photo is the best photo of 2018, chosen by thousands of visitors from the Dutch popular-scientific @Scientias. https://t.co/HEO8Xw24Ki pic.twitter.com/3312IKi8jZ
— Tim Kraaijvanger (@timkraaijvanger) December 26, 2018
So long and thanks for all the fish! 🐬
A cloud in the shape of a dolphin appears to be swimming through #Jupiter’s cloud bands in this series of color-enhanced images https://t.co/qo3SBTiMvI pic.twitter.com/sRY4bgwThN
— NASA’s Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) November 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/_TheSeaning/status/1076805427743080450
