Breathtaking New Photos Show Jupiter's Hypnotic Swirling Storms, And How Is This Real?

The regions have fascinated us since we saw the poles of Jupiter.

In one of the latest pictures sent back of the north pole, you can see that the storm was raging with an intensity we can only imagine here on earth.

The image was taken during the 43rd close flyby of our Solar System's giant planet on July 5th. Because Jupiter's poles aren't visible to us most of the time, planetary scientists rely on data from Juno to conduct studies of the atmospheric dynamics.

If you zoom in to the cloud tops of Jupiter, you can see the scale and intensity of the planet's weather, as seen in the prior image processed by NASA engineer Kevin Gill.

The picture is of Jupiter. Kevin Gill is the author of "CC BY 2.0".

Powerful storms can be over 50 kilometers in height and hundreds of miles across, according to a JPL NASA spokesman.

Understanding how they form is important to understanding Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry that make the planet's other atmospheric features. The different shapes, sizes, and colors of the vortices are of interest to scientists.

Each of Jupiter's poles has its own unique weather pattern. The south pole has six cyclones, each comparable to the size of the continental United States, one in the center and five storms arrayed around it in an almost- perfect pentagon.

Scientists were able to observe the appearance of a seventh storm when they flew by. This is different from the northern polar hexagon, which is a hexagonal storm.

There are storms of Jupiter. Brian Swift processed the image for NASA and JPL-Caltech.

Nine storms, eight of which were arrayed around one in the center, were found at the north pole. At the high latitude regions around both of the central polar concatenations of storms, there are other storms.

Scientists have found a way for storms to stay separate instead of merging into one large storm. Tracking changes between Jupiter's flybys is one of the most important tools planetary scientists have.

Citizen scientists can also be involved in the fun. A citizen scientist processed the above image. There is a detailed how-to guide for that in Sky at Night Magazine. There are raw images here.

Citizen scientists can help identify and classify storms on Jupiter. The tool will help planetary scientists better understand the wild world.

The image above can be downloaded from the JPL NASA website.