NASA Photo taken on Jupiter - Original Images!

On March 3rd, 1972, the time had come. In the 1960s, Pioneer 10 was the first space probe to leave our blue home planet and set off for the giant Jupiter. In the following decades, six more unmanned spacecraft were to reach the realms of the gas giant.

Throughout these exploration missions, we not only gained important insights into the largest member of our planetary system and its moons but also breathtaking images of the planet.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

Jupiter: A Brief Overview

No other planet in the solar system has such massive dimensions as Jupiter, with a diameter of 89 000 miles for classification. In theory, our earth could easily fit more than 1000 times into our massive neighboring planet.

These impressive dimensions ultimately mean that we can see Jupiter in the sky even though there is a gap of more than 360 million miles between us and this imposing celestial body. The celestial object named after the Roman chief god is classified as a gas planet with increasing depth.

The gases that makeup Jupiter eventually enter a supercritical state. Although Jupiter consists mainly of volatile chemical compounds, first and foremost hydrogen and helium, this means that the corresponding substances are in a special thermodynamic state within which the properties of liquid and gaseous states of matter are combined.

Many experts, nevertheless, consider it possible that the gas giant has a solid core. Although the planet's colossal heart is most likely made of ice and rock, it has a mass 20 times that of the Earth, and this chemical composition allows Jupiter to achieve a fantastic intrinsic rotational velocity: despite being many times larger than the Earth, the gas giant takes less than 10 hours to rotate once around itself.

In simple terms, Jupiter appears wider than high because it takes 12 years for the largest planet in the solar system to orbit the central host star, and the two celestial objects are separated by 480 million miles on average.

The means temperatures prevailing in the upper layers of the gas giant also drop to bone-chillingly cold depths. On average, the thermometer here rises no higher than negative 162 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the deeper we penetrate the interior of the gas planet, the further the temperatures rise.

In combination with the steadily increasing pressure conditions in the innermost regions of the planet, the condition of the substances presents there also changes.

Meanwhile, it's known that the galactic colossus is surrounded by at least 79 moons. The largest and by far the best known of all the Jupiter satellites are the four Galilean Moons.

As the names of these satellites suggest, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa were discovered and described by none other than the world-famous Italian explorer Galileo Galilei.

The Galactic Giant:

A look at the overall view of the planet shows us what diversity characterizes the gas giant. Particularly memorable are the striking stripe patterns that adorn the planet along its equatorial plane.

As we can see in the image taken by the Cassini Spacecraft, these characteristic patterns come not only in different sizes and shapes but also in different colors.

In detail, these galactic colors are created by the different gases that exist in Jupiter’s atmosphere. These are mainly ammonia and sulfur structures, which are sharply distinguished from each other.

The detailed investigation of these structures ultimately led to the realization that the gas orbits undergo regular changes. These changes affect not only the extent of the distinctive streaks but also their coloration.

A closer look at these breathtaking images shows us that the countless orbits are repeatedly peppered with conspicuous small white dots, which at first appear to us on the overall view of the planet to be extremely small structures, are raging storms that regularly sweep across Jupiter.

The Great Red Spot:

The magnitude of the whirlwinds on planets the size of Jupiter becomes clear to us if we concern ourselves with the so-called Great Red Spot. This is a raging anti-cyclone whose diameter is about one and a half times that of our blue home planet.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

The gigantic structure has been raging for at least 200 years in the top atmospheric layers of the gas and possibly much longer. What causes the typical coloration of the great red spot is still a galactic mystery.

What is certain is that the structure rises to five miles above the surrounding cloud cover and in the recent past has become significantly smaller and more circular than before. Experts suspect that these changes are due to interactions with other storms on Jupiter.

Other storm formations:

As we can see in the general view of Jupiter, the gas planet is not only graced by the great red spot, but also by several other whirlwinds.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

These whipping formations often reach speeds of more than 300 miles per hour and are far more durable than their terrestrial counterparts, of course, the whirlwinds have a direct impact on their immediate surroundings taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show that the coloration of this structure changed from white to red over time.

The hurricane, which reaches wind speeds of up to 370 miles per hour, is therefore also called a "red spot." We've known about a third red storm raging on Jupiter since 2008.

Jupiter's North Pole:

The following is a computer-generated image based on an infrared image of the gas giant's the North Pole. This image shows impressively that the polar regions of the celestial body are accompanied by stormy conditions.

More precisely, the image shows the structure of a unique cyclone pattern. The center of this roaring structure is a large central cyclone, which in turn is surrounded by eight independent storm structures that have a diameter of between 2490 and 2860 miles.

The South Pole of the Giant:

The opposite polar region is also afflicted by extreme storm formation. Just as at the North Pole, we find a unique association of powerful cyclones in the southern reaches of the celestial body. Here too, a large cyclone forms the center of the structure around which five other cyclones have settled.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

These cyclones, like nearly all of the formations that adorn the large representative of our planetary system, are constantly changing.

Galilean Moons:

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

To conclude today's excursion into the realms of Jupiter Moons, we would like to take a look at the four large satellites of the gas giant. What immediately catches our eye when we look at Europa, the largest of the Galilean moons, are the numerous cracks and trenches that decorate the surface of the satellite.

These are breaks in the surface structures that developed in the course of dynamic processes in the soil. It's, however, an urgent observation concerning Jupiter’s moon that holds us spellbound.

Experts are convinced that under the thick ice cover of the satellite, a subglacial saltwater ocean of unimagined scale exists.

Ganymede:

With an equatorial diameter of 3,200 miles, Ganymede is not only Jupiter’s largest natural companion but also the largest known moon in the entire solar system. The strong magnetic field also makes this celestial body unique among the moons.

The thick ice crust which adorns the surface of Ganymede is peppered with the most diverse landscape formations as a result of numerous tectonic activities. These countless impact craters have always been characteristic of the face of the moon.

Io:

The surface of the innermost of Jupiter's four large moons, Io, resembles a fiery patchwork quilt. This moon hosts dozens of volcanic formations, many of which remain active to this day. No other known celestial body in our solar system exhibits such pronounced volcanism as Jupiter’s galactic companion.

However, most of the volcanoes we find on the satellite are not fire mountains in the classical sense but so-called calderas. These are cauldron shaped depressions on the surface that regularly spew smoke and ash

Callisto:

With a diameter of 3000 miles, Callisto ranks second in the list of Galilean moons sorted by size. The satellite's rugged surface testifies to the fact that Jupiter’s moon has been hit by countless galactic missiles in the past.

Callisto, along with Saturn’s moon Phoebe, is one of the moons in the solar system with the highest density and number of meteorite craters.

Just as in the case of Europa, researchers believe that a subglacial sea could lie dormant beneath the partially 200-kilometer thick ice surface of the satellite.