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Where to Find Mission Raw Images

NASA’s Juno spacecraft was a little more than one Earth diameter from Jupiter when it captured this mind-bending, color-enhanced view of the planet’s tumultuous atmosphere. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager.

Enhanced image by Sean Doran (CC BY-NC-SA) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Several solar system exploration missions routinely publish raw, unprocessed images taken by cameras aboard robotic spacecraft. Unlike most pictures that appear on NASA web sites, these images are not validated or calibrated, and often lack captions and other information to provide context.

What these images do provide is a timely first look at the places where the spacecraft are currently exploring, and a chance for anyone to follow along with missions events almost as soon as they happen.

Following are places to find raw images:

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

- Earth's Moon

wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc/thumbnails

Mars Curiosity Rover

- Mars

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity

- Mars

mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity.html

Juno

- Jupiter