Jupiter's bare bottom (GRAPHIC: dialup warning)

[eppur_se_muova]

Although Cassini/Huygens is a mission to Saturn, the probe passed so close to Jupiter for a gravitational assist ("slingshot") that it was able to capture the most detailed pictures of Jupiter yet, due in part to improved cameras and high-rate data transmission abilities compared even to Galileo.

Be sure to d/l the 15.18 MB TIFF file! :)

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07784



PIA07784: Cassini's Best Maps of Jupiter (South Polar Map)

These color maps of Jupiter were constructed from images taken by the narrow-angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 11 and 12, 2000, as the spacecraft neared Jupiter during its flyby of the giant planet. Cassini was on its way to Saturn. They are the most detailed global color maps of Jupiter ever produced; the smallest visible features are about 120 kilometers (75 miles) across. For other maps see PIA07782 and PIA07783.

The maps are composed of 36 images: a pair of images covering Jupiter's northern and southern hemispheres was acquired in two colors every hour for nine hours as Jupiter rotated beneath the spacecraft. Although the raw images are in just two colors, 750 nanometers (near-infrared) and 451 nanometers (blue), the map's colors are close to those the human eye would see when gazing at Jupiter.

The maps show a variety of colorful cloud features, including parallel reddish-brown and white bands, the Great Red Spot, multi-lobed chaotic regions, white ovals and many small vortices. Many clouds appear in streaks and waves due to continual stretching and folding by Jupiter's winds and turbulence. The bluish-gray features along the north edge of the central bright band are equatorial "hot spots," meteorological systems such as the one entered by NASA's Galileo probe. Small bright spots within the orange band north of the equator are lightning-bearing thunderstorms. The polar regions shown here are less clearly visible because Cassini viewed them at an angle and through thicker atmospheric haze.

The round maps are polar stereographic projections that show the north or south pole in the center of the map and the equator at the edge.

[Lautremont]

1. A Spooky Space Eye!

Alan Parsons wasn't crazy after all.

Pretty amazing!

[wtmusic]

2. Looks like Rush's rear end

Cyst and all

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Thought that was the "redeye".

:evilgrin:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Fantastic!!! Looks like a geode!

[mainegreen]

4. Ung, I'm getting an optical illusion off that image.

May just be my bad vision, but as I look around that picture the outside white bands seems to crawl and rotate around.
:crazy:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. It's a "Time Tunnel" illusion, if you remember that TV show

:7

[Skinner]

5. That image is amazing.

:thumbsup:

[IndianaGreen]

8. The pole region looks totally flat!

I wonder if they can get a 3-D picture of that region?