At first glance at this image, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for an abstract painting.
But the image is very much real, and shows swirling cyclones at the north pole of Jupiter.
The psychedelic photo was snapped by NASA ’s Juno spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Jupiter.
NASA explained: “Cyclones at the north pole of Jupiter appear as swirls of striking colors in this extreme false color rendering of an image from NASA’s Juno mission.
“The huge, persistent cyclone found at Jupiter’s north pole is visible at the center of the image, encircled by smaller cyclones that range in size from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,600 kilometers). Together, this pattern of storms covers an area that would dwarf the Earth.”
The photo was created by combining several individual images taken by Juno from February to July this year.
NASA added: “The colour choices in this image reveal both the beauty of Jupiter and the subtle details present in Jupiter’s dynamic cloud structure.
“Each new observation that Juno provides of Jupiter’s atmosphere complements computer simulations and helps further refine our understanding of how the storms evolve over time.”
NASA’s Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, following a five year journey from Earth.
The spacecraft’s primary goal is to reveal the story of Jupiter’s formation and evolution.
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NASA explained: “Using long-proven technologies on a spinning spacecraft placed in an elliptical polar orbit, Juno will observe Jupiter’s gravity and magnetic fields, atmospheric dynamics and composition, and evolution.”
However, NASA is now also using its James Webb Space Telescope to examine the atmosphere in Jupiter’s polar region.
It explained: “NASAWebb’s data will provide much more detail than has been possible in past observations, measuring winds, cloud particles, gas composition, and temperature.”
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