NASA returns spectacular images of Jupiter and our solar system’s largest moon, Ganymede

NASA’s Juno probe has moved closer to Jupiter and its largest moon, Ganymede, than any other spacecraft for more than two decades – and the images it returned from the The gas giant and its icy orb are breathtaking.

Juno approached Ganymede on June 7, before making its 34th flyby of Jupiter the next day, traveling from pole to pole in less than three hours.

On Thursday, NASA released an animated series of images captured by the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager, offering a “captain of the ship” perspective of every flyby. They mark the first close-up views of the largest moon in the solar system since the last flight of the Galileo orbiter in 2000.

The time-lapse animation lasts three and a half minutes, guiding space enthusiasts within 645 miles of Ganymede at 41,600 miles per hour. The images show the lightest and darkest regions of the moon, believed to be the result of the sublimation of ice from a solid to a gaseous state.

Also visible is Tros Crater, one of the largest and brightest crater scars on the moon.

The animation then moves to Jupiter, a 735,000 mile trip from Ganymede that takes 14 hours and 50 minutes to Juno. Viewers are brought within 2,100 miles of The famous clouds of Jupiter, as the planet’s powerful gravity accelerates the probe to nearly 130,000 miles per hour.

Visible from this vantage point are the cyclones at the gas giant’s north pole, as well as five “pearl chains” – gigantic storms revolving in the southern hemisphere, appearing as white ovals.

“The animation shows how magnificent deep space exploration can be,” Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton said in a statement. “Animation is a way for people to imagine exploring our solar system firsthand seeing what it would be like to orbit Jupiter and fly over one of its icy moons. Today, then As we approach the exciting prospect of humans being able to visit space orbiting Earth, it propels our imaginations decades into the future, when humans will visit the alien worlds of our solar system. ”

The NASA animation team also simulated lightning bolts that would be visible if you actually saw one of Jupiter’s thunderstorms in person. The camera perspective for the animation was generated by Citizen Scientist Gerald Eichstädt, using composite images of the planet and its moon.

“It is the closest ship to this gigantic moon in a generation,” Bolton said. “We’re going to take our time before drawing any scientific conclusions, but until then we can just marvel at this celestial wonder, the only moon in our solar system larger than the planet Mercury.”

Jupiter’s next flyby, Juno’s 35th voyage of this type, is scheduled for July 21.