NASA’s $1 Billion Jupiter Probe Just Sent Back Stunning New Photos of Jupiter

NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft captured its ninth set of breathtaking flyby pictures while above Jupiter at a speed of more than 130,000 miles per hour. But for more than a week, the sun obscured Earth from the enormous planet, preventing the spacecraft from beaming home its priceless data.

However, additional raw imaging data from Juno's ninth Perijove, or as the spacecraft's high-speed flybys are known, have flooded in after the conjunction was finished. Researchers made it all available online, and since then, a community of amateurs and experts have been hard at work processing the data to produce vibrant and breathtaking new images of Jupiter.

“Brand new Jupiter pics from @NASAJuno Perijove 09!

Some of the new close-up Jupiter’s images from Perijoves are shown below:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran
During each flyby, the robot briefly surpasses all other man-made objects in the solar system as it approaches Jupiter at a speed of about 130,000 miles per hour.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran

After that, Juno returned to outer space, flying above Jupiter's South Pole as it did so. At the poles, swirling storms constantly alter their appearance.