The Juno spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter during the NASA Solar System mission's 54th close flyby of the giant planet on 7 September 2023. The image was created with raw data from the JunoCam instrument, which was processed to enhance details in cloud features and colours.

The violent nature of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere has always intrigued researchers. Using Juno's science instruments allows scientists to observe beneath Jupiter's turbulent cloud layer and reveal how the gas giant works from the inside out.

Gravity data collected by Juno show that Jupiter's atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical shape parallel to the axis of rotation. Measurements of the gravity field matched a two-decade-old model that determined that Jupiter's strong east-west zonal flows extend inward from white and red regions and belts at cloud level.

But the measurements also revealed that the zonal flows go cylindrically inward and are orientated along Jupiter's rotation axis, rather than extending in all directions like a radiating sphere. How Jupiter's deep atmospheric winds are structured has been debated since the 1970s, and the Juno mission has now settled the debate.

The next mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, will explore the liquid ocean beneath the moon's icy crust. You can submit your name (or your pet's name) for the journey at go.nasa.gov/MessageInABottle. Applications close on 31 December.

Image description:

Two-image scan of one hemisphere of Jupiter seen against the darkness of space. The planet's clouds form coloured stripes, bands and swirls in cool tones of blue and brown.