Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered In Solar System

[Megalith]

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has given us a beautiful picture of our system’s largest planet. The gas giant, apparently, has storm systems and weather activity that are entirely unique.

Juno successfully executed the first of 36 orbital flybys on Aug. 27 when the spacecraft came about 2,500 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter’s swirling clouds. The download of six megabytes of data collected during the six-hour transit, from above Jupiter’s north pole to below its south pole, took one-and-a-half days. While analysis of this first data collection is ongoing, some unique discoveries have already made themselves visible.

 

[PeaKr]

In a world with so many problems its pretty cool we are still doing incredible things in space. I'm really stoked about a submarine on Titan. I'd also like to see a Kepler II.

 

[Skripka]

And all that...just from 6 megabytes.

My damn keyboard driver is 30X that.

 

[MrTryfe]

And all that...just from 6 megabytes.

My damn keyboard driver is 30X that.

Admittedly, a whole lot of other shit needed to happen to get us "just 6 mb".

 

[funkydmunky]

Where are the stars?

 

[Grebuloner]

Where are the stars?

There are no stars for (possibly) two reasons:
1) Jupiter is plenty bright enough and Juno is moving fast enough that the exposures are far too short for even the brightest stars (assuming they'd even be in the narrow aperture) to show up in any noticeable way.
2) Edited out as part of the image processing, as multiple pictures with multiple color filters are used to get the final image from the rotating & moving spacecraft. It's easier to ignore non-target data when it comes to pretty press photos.

Very cool page with explanations and images describing how the camera takes pictures and how they are merged:
JunoCam | Mission Juno

 

[Prisoner849]

AFAIK, #1 above is correct. In space, the extreme light/dark contrast is such that exposure times are incredibly short, making space seem starless (the object - Jupiter here - is incredibly bright this close in space). I had the same question years ago when shots from ISS came back starless. Then I looked up some longer exposures and there they were. However, even those were quite unlike what we see from Earth; no 'center of the galaxy' shots because those long exposures are also clipping along at thousands of mph, too long to capture those long-distance shots. In fact, many of the ISS shots are composites taken from many orbits.

 

[ob1]

I thought he was referencing the 2001 obelisk thingy...

 

[primetime]

the part i dont quite understand...is the probe would need to be like a million miles away to get a full picture like that? (as big as jupiter is). I cant even imagine what the pics of only 2k miles above the clouds will be like. (cant wait lol)

 

[limitedaccess]

the part i dont quite understand...is the probe would need to be like a million miles away to get a full picture like that? (as big as jupiter is). I cant even imagine what the pics of only 2k miles above the clouds will be like. (cant wait lol)

That was the closest it approached during the fly by. The image shown here was taken 48000 miles out - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupiter-s-north-pole-unlike-anything-encountered-in-solar-system

 

[primetime]

That was the closest it approached during the fly by. The image shown here was taken 48000 miles out - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupiter-s-north-pole-unlike-anything-encountered-in-solar-system

i guess its the optics they use that throws me off....cause jupiter is over twice that distance in diameter. If i were driving by and snapped a picture with my phone, i figure it would look way different.

 

[Skripka]

i guess its the optics they use that throws me off....cause jupiter is over twice that distance in diameter. If i were driving by and snapped a picture with my phone, i figure it would look way different.

Very much so.

JunoCam | Mission Juno

 

[primetime]

I wish they could stop the dam probe from spinning and take some half way normal shots. (that dont require 100 shots spliced together)

 

[Skripka]

I wish they could stop the dam probe from spinning and take some half way normal shots. (that dont require 100 shots spliced together)

They could....But...

NASA is on a very slim budget. The more you induce/change spin the more fuel you need. Also the more you screw with momentum, the more you risk go wrong. The more fuel you need, the more mass you need. The more mass means much higher lift costs. Lift costs are already in the realm of $10,000USD per kilogram depending on the rocket vehicle.