Nasa reveals ‘never before seen’ Jupiter photo – including storm ‘big enough to swallow Earth’

NASA has captured a stunning image of Jupiter – and it’s like nothing you’ve seen before.

The impressive snap was captured by the new James Webb Space Telescope, and showcases an enormous storm swirling in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

2

Nasa’s JWST has been capturing breathtaking pictures of deep space for weeks.

But it also caught some spectacular snaps of Jupiter in infrared light – usually invisible to the human eye.

The space telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) reveals the hidden secrets of Jupiter in impressive detail, by combining multiple images into one.

We can see its auroras extending to high altitudes above the northern and southern poles.

And hazes swirling around the poles are also visible.

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said Professor Mike de Pater, a planetary astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter.

“Together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image.”

Spot it!

The image also shows Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, an enormous storm, visible in the bottom-left.

It appears white in this image because it’s reflecting a lot of sunlight.

“The brightness here indicates high altitude,” said Webb scientist Heidi Hammell.

“So the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region.

“The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are very likely high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.”

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is the largest storm in the Solar System, measuring around 10,160 miles wide.

That’s roughly 1.3 times the diameter of Earth.

Winds at the edge of the cyclone peak at about 268mph – faster than Earth’s highest wind speed on record (253mph).

Spaced out

The James Webb Space Telescope launched in December 2021, but its first images weren’t made public until July 2022.

It’s the successor to Nasa’s Hubble space telescope, and is tasked with studying the early universe.

This is achieved by observing light from the very first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.

It now orbits about a million miles away, and is set to capture many more images of the wonders of space – before beaming them back to scientists here on Earth.

And scientists hope that some of this data could help find distant planets capable of supporting life.

2

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]