A breathtaking image of Jupiter’s swirling storms

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

NASA’s Juno space probe orbiting Jupiter captured this stunning image of swirling storms on the largest planet in our solar system. The radius of Jupiter is 69,911 km, which is 11 times larger than that of Earth. This means that if Earth were a nickel, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball. from NASA Astronomy photo of the day:

Large storms on Jupiter are different. On Earth, huge hurricanes and super-cyclones are concentrated in low-pressure regions, but on Jupiter, high-pressure, anti-cyclone storms are the largest. On Earth, large storms can last for weeks, but on Jupiter they can last for years. On Earth, large storms can be as big as a country, but on Jupiter, large storms can be as large as planet Earth. Both types of storms are known to produce lightning. The featured image of Jupiter’s clouds was constructed from images and data captured by the robotic Juno spacecraft as it approached the massive planet in August 2020. A circular white ellipse is visible nearby, while many small cloud swirls extend in the distance. On Jupiter, light-colored clouds are usually higher than dark clouds. Despite their differences, studying storm clouds on distant Jupiter provides insight into storms and other weather patterns on familiar Earth.