NASA captures the true colors of Jupiter and it’s a special sight

Nowadays, whenever I see a picture of something in the cosmos, I narrow my eyes in suspicion before reveling in wonder. I find myself wondering: Is this Really how does that thing look

Most of the time, scientists add artistic flourishes to their space images. This isn’t just for fun (although it’s pretty fun), but because a little coloring goes a long way when emphasizing raw planetary images or rendering cosmic light. undetectable by human pupils.

What this means, for us space watchers, is that no matter how difficult it is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope could have tried to convince us, the Carina Nebula does not look like warm, melted candy. Despite what the elementary school textbooks say, Venus is not a mustard yellow sphere.. And contrary to what the Hubble Space Telescope suggests, the Unfortunately, Veil Nebula is not an iridescent rainbow worm.. I could go on.

So every time I look at a picture of a realm beyond Earth, I know It is not colored, I look a little more than usual, and on Tuesday we were blessed with one of those wonders.

Here is the left side of the image below, taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. It’s roughly what the surface of Jupiter would look like if we could somehow gape at it like we admire the moon. king of the solar systemOf course.

Can’t help but look to the right side? same. But be careful. That’s one of those suspicious processed images. Has higher color saturation and contrast to sharpen small-scale Jovian features, NASA said in a statement. This manipulation was important to reduce noise or other artifacts in the portrait, the agency explains.

“This clearly reveals some of the most intriguing aspects of Jupiter’s atmosphere,” NASA said, “including the variation in color that results from the different chemical composition, the three-dimensional nature of Jupiter’s swirling vortices, and the small, bright clouds.” ’emergents’ that form high in the atmosphere.”

Of course, this version of Jupiter’s marbled skin is certainly more visually striking, but consider how the left side is our reality. In space, there is an orb made of swirling gas that can hold more than 1,300 Earths inside. And… it probably looks like this?

Our latest special lens on Jupiter is thanks to citizen scientist Björn Jónsson, who collected and compiled publicly available data taken with NASA’s Juno mission. Juno is a spaceship that spans the width of a basketball court and makes long circular orbits around the reddish-brown world as it captures information and images about its planetary muse.

Since its launch from Earth in 2011, Juno has been a force.

has returned a amazing photo album of images of Jupiter, ranging from watercolor vortices colored in blue and opal, to a magnificent view in pink tones of the jovian atmosphere and still more subdued, more realistic images of its layers.

Also, on April 9, Juno reached its point of closest approach to Jupitersurpassing 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) above the planet’s clouds, paving the way for this type of stop-motion film.

Regarding the new image of the gas giant revealed by Jónsson, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above the clouds of Jupiter at a latitude of about 50 degrees. “At the time, the spacecraft was traveling at about 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet,” NASA said.

Yet another win for Juno and yet another introspective space treasure for us.

It’s things like this that provoke a kind of strange feeling in me, a mixture of existential fear, awe, silence. They are reminders of our small, but remarkably smart, view of the universe.