NASA's New Horizons robotic probe captured images and video of Jupiter and its four largest moons in February, when it flew by on its way to Pluto. During the flyby, the probe captured rare glimpses of a polar thunderstorm, a super-volcano eruption on one of Jupiter's moons, and a new red cloud over the solar system's biggest planet. NASA released new details about the planet this week in the journal Science.
Shown here is a montage of images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon, Io. The composite images were taken by the spacecraft's near-infrared imaging spectrometer, called the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). According to NASA, the infrared wavelengths used in the images highlight variations in the altitude of the Jovian cloud tops. Blue denotes high-altitude clouds and hazes, and red shows deeper clouds. The prominent bluish-white oval is the so-called Great Red Spot.
Check out the first batch of photos and more stormy views taken by New Horizons on its visit to Jupiter.
Photo by NASA
