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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from Juno

Explanation: This storm cloud on Jupiter is almost as large as the Earth. Known as a white oval , the swirling cloud is a high pressure system equivalent to an Earthly anticyclone . The cloud is one of a “ string of pearls ” ovals south of Jupiter 's famous Great Red Spot . Possibly, the Great Red Spot is just a really large white oval that turned red . Surrounding clouds show interesting turbulence as they flow around and past the oval . The featured image was captured on February 2 as NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno made a new pass just above the cloud tops of the Jovian world . Over the next few years, Juno will continue to orbit and probe Jupiter , determine atmospheric water abundance, and attempt to determine if Jupiter has a solid surface beneath its thick clouds.

Date February 28, 2017
Credit Image Credit: NASA , JPL-Caltech , SwRI , MSSS ; Processing: Roman Tkachenko
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.