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First look at Jupiter’s north pole—bluer and “hardly recognizable”

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So far the $1.1 billion NASA mission to Jupiter is delivering on a grand scale.

Eric Berger
  • http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PIA21030_hires-980x980.jpgNASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view as it closed in on Jupiter's north pole, about two hours before closest approach on August 27, 2016.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
  • This infrared image from Juno provides an unprecedented view of Jupiter's southern aurora.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
  • JunoCam acquired this view of Jupiter's south polar region about an hour after closest approach on August 27, 2016, when the spacecraft was about 94,500km above the cloud tops.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
  • Juno was about 78,000km above Jupiter's polar cloud tops when it captured this view, showing storms and weather unlike anywhere else in the Solar System.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
  • This Southern Hemisphere view of Jupiter shows the transition between banded structures near the equator and the more chaotic features near the polar region.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
  • This montage of 10 JunoCam images shows Jupiter growing and shrinking in apparent size before and after NASA's Juno spacecraft made its close approach on August 27.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
This week, scientists got their first look at images and data from the Juno spacecraft's initial flyby of Jupiter's polar regions, and they were thrilled to find an entirely different world than the familiar one which exists around the equator.
"It looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "It's bluer in color up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to—this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter. We're seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features."
Planetary scientists also weren't sure whether they'd find a hexagon like the one that exists at Saturn's north pole, but the spacecraft did not observe one (nor a square, pentagon, or other delightful geometric figures). Fortunately the mission has 36 more orbits around Jupiter to understand why one gas giant in the Solar System has a hexagon, and its neighbor does not.
During its flyby around the south pole, Juno also provided an unprecedented view of a large aurora there, which the spacecraft's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper captured at wavelengths ranging from 3.3 to 3.6 microns. The infrared view allowed scientists to map the planet's warm and hot spots.
The $1.1 billion spacecraft made this initial flyby on August 27, flying to within 4,200km of the planet's upper-level clouds. Its principal mission is not to take pictures of the planet, but rather to map its interior and magnetic field. This will provide clues about the metallic hydrogen at the planet's interior and whether it has a core. That work continues in earnest.
Listing image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

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