The aging Hubble Space Telescope has produced a new full portrait image of Jupiter, our Solar System’s stormy gas giant. NASA shared the image earlier this month, though it was captured by the space telescope on June 27.

The portrait features Jupiter’s colorful bands, as well as its iconic Giant Red Spot, a massive storm that has been raging on the planet for hundreds of years.

According to NASA, the new image features ‘a more intense color palette’ related to the clouds visible in Jupiter’s atmosphere, exceeding that of past portraits. The space agency explains that this new image was captured in visible light using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

NASA describes the importance of the image in a post, pointing out various bands and colors that hint at changes in the gas giant’s atmosphere. The two cloud bands visible below and above the Great Red Spot, for example, are moving in opposite directions, NASA explains, each separated by winds moving up to 644km/h (400mph).

The portrait comes amid ongoing work with the James Webb Space Telescope, which will eventually replace Hubble, offering newer technology and improved camera capabilities, among other things. The new space telescope is scheduled to launch in 2021.

2019-8-30 18:58