NASA recently revealed a gorgeously scary image captured by Juno, a spacecraft that’s circling and gathering data on Jupiter. The photo was captured on October 29, when Juno was around 4,400 miles away from the planet.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Twitter account uploaded the image, asking Twitter for some opinions on the crazy looking subject. They suggested that the giant blob was a space dragon’s eye, which is awesome but scary as hell.
A Dragon’s Eye?
What do you see within the swirling clouds of Jupiter? https://t.co/TjIOUFJ2CC
?: @NASAJuno pic.twitter.com/45RMgQ6d3u— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) November 9, 2018
The tweet sparked the imagination of many Twitter users, who gave out random and crazy answers, comparisons to paintings, movies and animals, creative drawings, and more.
Jupiter’s clouds look like the sky from Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’. pic.twitter.com/Uv3Pi5MxSa
— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) November 9, 2018
I see a Squid. pic.twitter.com/BO0Wy4eF4c
— ☃️ Noel Blaney ☃️ (@LividLFC) November 9, 2018
Dragon!!! pic.twitter.com/5y1FjeKOh7
— Astro Yuki ?? (@AstroYuki) November 9, 2018
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It’s Gollum from the Rankin/Bass 1977 adaption of The Hobbit pic.twitter.com/y692fbdmC5
— Kyle Wadsworth (@Shootist2600) November 10, 2018
Hades underworld from Disney movie ? Hercules pic.twitter.com/aBO1MvdvM9
— Debbie ?Ahern ??✌??✨??dm ⚠️ (@savetheturtles2) November 11, 2018
According to NASA, the image depicts nothing as crazy as a wild creature or a space dragon; it’s simply a shot of some Jupiter clouds and an anticyclonic storm. Because Jupiter is very dramatic, these clouds look like the end of the world. “Appearing in the scene are several bright-white ‘pop-up’ clouds as well as an anticyclonic storm, known as a white oval,” explains NASA.
The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011, undergoing a five-year journey in order to land on Jupiter in July 2016. The spacecraft’s mission is planned to conclude in 2021, where it’ll have gathered considerable data on the planet which has remained very mysterious for us here on Earth.
Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.”
We can expect crazy pictures like this until Juno wraps up its journey. In the meantime, you can follow @NASAJPL on social media. What they publish is pretty complex stuff, but the photos are great.
