Jupiter Looks Like A Giant Marble In NASA's Latest Stunning Image

NASA has published a new image of Jupiter, one that shows the full planet with its iconic Great Red Spot visible in its entirety. The giant gas planet looks like a beautiful marble streaked with earthy colors in the new image, giving viewers an distant look to compare with NASA's vast library of close-up Jupiter photos. The image was captured by the space agency's Juno spacecraft.

The JunoCam instrument located on NASA's Juno spacecraft has provided the public with a vast library of raw images accessible here. Many of these images have been processed by amateur astronomers and enthusiasts, producing striking imagery that resembles something like a fantasy world.

The latest image — the 'marble' visible above — was created by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill, according to NASA, using data that was acquired by the JunoCam. The composite color-enhanced photo was produced from a total of three images captured on February 12, 2019, at 12:59PM EST and again at 1:39PM EST.

The images were captured during the Juno spacecraft's 17th science pass of the gas giant, according to NASA, when it was located between 16,700 and 59,300 miles above the planet's clouds, which resemble twisting bands with random circular spots mixed between them.

The greatest storm among Jupiter's various dots is the Great Red Spot visible in the newest image. This bright reddish orange circle is a high-pressure zone with an anticyclonic storm — it's the largest in the Solar System and may be at least 350-years-old based on the earliest known observations.