Complex Jupiter

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2018-06-05 · NASA (public domain)

Complex Jupiter — APOD for 2018-06-05

How complex is Jupiter? NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter is finding the Jovian giant to be more complicated than expected . Jupiter's magnetic field has been discovered to be much different from our Earth's simple dipole field , showing several poles embedded in a complicated network more convoluted in the north than the south. Further, Juno's radio measurements show that Jupiter's atmosphere shows structure well below the upper cloud deck -- even hundreds of kilometers deep. Jupiter 's newfound complexity is evident also in southern clouds, as shown in the featured image . There, planet-circling zones and belts that dominate near the equator decay into a complex miasma of continent-sized storm swirls. Juno continues in its looping elliptical orbit, swooping near the huge planet every 53 days and exploring a slightly different sector each time around.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2018-06-05 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.