                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2025 February 16

                        Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
      Video Credit & License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt;
               Music: Moonlight Sonata (Ludwig van Beethoven)

   Explanation: Here comes Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is
   continuing on its highly elongated orbits around our Solar System's
   largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in early 2018,
   the eleventh time Juno passed near Jupiter since it arrived in
   mid-2016. This time-lapse, color-enhanced movie covers about four hours
   and morphs between 36 JunoCam images. The video begins with Jupiter
   rising as Juno approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest
   view -- from about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops -- the
   spacecraft captures the great planet in tremendous detail. Juno passes
   light zones and dark belts of clouds that circle the planet, as well as
   numerous swirling circular storms, many of which are larger than
   hurricanes on Earth. After the perijove, Jupiter recedes into the
   distance, then displaying the unusual clouds that appear over Jupiter's
   south. To get desired science data, Juno swoops so close to Jupiter
   that its instruments are exposed to very high levels of radiation.

                        Tomorrow's picture: big cloud
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

