New Delhi:
Juno, NASA’s solar-powered spacecraft, has beamed back the seventh of the eighth features of Jupiter, which looks stunning. NASA Juno probe has captured a feature of Jupiter forming a ‘string of pearls’.Â
The string of pearls is massive storms that rotate counterclockwise and appear as white ovals in the gas giant planet’s southern hemisphere.
JunoCam imager on-board the Juno spacecraft captured the picture. These white ovals have varied ion number from six to nine since 1986. Currently, there are eight white ovals visible.
The NASA Juno spacecraft clicked the picture on December 11 as the spacecraft performed its third close flyby of Jupiter. The spacecraft was about 24,600 kilometres from the planet when the picture was taken, NASA said.
The 7th pearl! A new #JunoCam image highlights a massive rotating storm in #Jupiter’s southern hemisphere https://t.co/M497qHojlU pic.twitter.com/b46gRpbdqI
— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) December 14, 2016
The JunoCam camera is visible-light and coloured. It has been built to click remarkable images of poles and cloud tops of Jupiter. The JunoCam is June spacecraft's eyes that provide a wide view. This helps in providing context for other instruments of Juno probe.
JunoCam was installed on the Juno spacecraft specifically to solve the purposes of public engagement. However, the images clicked by Juno will also help the science team, although it is not considered as the science instruments of the mission, said NASA.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
