Okay, so I have to admit something…I’m a bit strange. Now most of the people who know me well will look at that statement and think, “yes, and…?” So let me elaborate a bit on what pops into my mind when I see certain things and maybe you can get a glimpse into how my thinking works.

You see when I saw the image posted here – the beauty and majesty of the largest planet in our solar system, the swirling storms of hydrogen and helium,water, methane, and ammonia – I immediately thought one thing: that looks like the opening few seconds of Ultraman from the 1960s.

I know, strange right? My first thought was not: “Wow, I’m in awe of the stupendous glory that is the universe we live in” rather “That reminds my of the opening credits of a somewhat obscure Japanese sci-fi television show from the late 60s.”  Don’t get me wrong, I am in fact in awe of the stupendous glory that is the universe we live in, but I also seem to have a vast storehouse of weird crap tumbling around in my brain that tends to turn every interaction and event into an opportunity to inject obscure trivia onto an otherwise beautiful thing.

So…strange. But to be fair I am fun at parties and great to have around on game night.

Anyway, all that was to say, “Hey! Look how cool Jupiter is!”

 In case you are wondering what I was talking about…

When Jovian Light and Dark Collide

This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, highlights a feature on Jupiter where multiple atmospheric conditions appear to collide.

This publicly selected target is called “STB Spectre.” The ghostly bluish streak across the right half of the image is a long-lived storm, one of the few structures perceptible in these whitened latitudes where the south temperate belt of Jupiter would normally be. The egg-shaped spot on the lower left is where incoming small dark spots make a hairpin turn.

The image was taken on March 27, 2017, at 2:06 a.m. PDT (5:06 a.m. EDT), as the Juno spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers) from the planet.

The image was processed by Roman Tkachenko, and the description is from John Rogers, the citizen scientist who identified the point of interest.

JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at:

www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam

More information about Juno is at: https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Roman Tkachenko