Jupiter like you’ve never seen it before

No, you’re not looking at Scarif, the tropical paradise targeted by the Death Star in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (“single reactor ignition, only”).

This recently captured and enhanced image may look like it depicts a massive archipelago fit for a secret Imperial schematics archive, but it’s really a swirling maelstrom of cyclones and other storms in our own solar system. Behold the Jovian majesty of Jupiter’s south pole, and despair.

Jupiter from below! This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s south pole and its swirling atmosphere was created by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko using data from the JunoCam imager on our Juno spacecraft. Juno acquired the image, looking directly at the Jovian south pole, on February 2, 2017, at 6:06 a.m. PST (9:06 a.m. EST) from an altitude of about 63,400 miles (102,100 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. Cyclones swirl around the south pole, and white oval storms can be seen near the limb — the apparent edge of the planet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko @nasajpl #nasa #jupiter Juno #planets #nasabeyond #solarsystem #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Feb 11, 2017 at 4:42am PST