Jupiter Pearl and Swirling Cloud Tops: This amateur-processed image was taken on Dec. 11, 2016, at 12:27 p.m. EST, as NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter spacecraft performed its third close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 15,200 miles (24,400 kilometers) from the gas giant planet.
The citizen scientist (Eric Jorgensen) cropped the JunoCam image and enhanced the color to draw attention to Jupiter’s swirling clouds southeast of the “pearl.” The “pearl” is one of eight massive rotating storms at 40 degrees south latitude on Jupiter, known colloquially as the “string of pearls.” The processing of this image highlights the turbulence of the clouds in the south temperate belt of the planet.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Eric Jorgensen