This series of images from NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures changing cloud formations across Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. A cloud in the shape of a dolphin appears to be swimming through the cloud bands along the South South Temperate Belt.
This sequence of images was taken between 2:26 p.m. and 2:46 p.m. PDT (5:26 p.m. and 5:56 p.m. EDT) on Oct. 29, 2018, as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno’s altitude ranged from about 11,400 to 31,700 miles (18,400 to 51,000 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, at approximately 32 to 59 degrees south latitude.
Citizen scientists Brian Swift and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and to process into image products at: http://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam.
More information about Juno is at: https://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu.
Credits: Enhanced Image by Brian Swift and Sean Doran (CC BY-NC-SA) based on images provided Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS