NASA Probe Reveals New Views of Jupiter

Jupiter's high altitude clouds taken by the New Horizons Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), starting February 28, 2007, when the spacecraft was only 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from the solar system's largest planet. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

"On Feb. 28, New Horizons passed within 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) of the gas giant as part of a slingshot maneuver to give it a speed boost as it races toward its main target Pluto.

The spacecraft followed a series of preprogrammed commands to observe Jupiter and its moons, and stored the data on board for later transmission to Earth. Mission scientists have spent the last several weeks pouring through newly received data from the probe to create the images presented today.

In one new image, Jupiter's high altitude clouds are clearly visible. The planet's south pole is capped with a haze of small particles probably created by the charged particles transported there during the gas giant's auroras.

Some of the new images have been combined into a montage to show a speckled view of Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede. Blue colors in the image represent relatively clean water ice, while brown colors reveal contaminated regions.

Many of the new images were taken primarily for artistic, rather than scientific, purposes. One shows Jupiter's icy moon Europa rising above the Jupiter cloud tops.

The Jupiter flyby came just 13 months after New Horizon's launch and was a dress rehearsal for its Pluto encounter in 2015. It marked a major milestone in the spacecraft's flight and allowed mission scientists to make new observations of Jupiter and its moons.

New Horizons is currently hurtling away from the Sun and Earth at 52,000 miles per hour (83,600 kph), making it the fastest NASA mission ever launched.

Source with more images