Stunning view of Jupiter’s north pole

NASA’s Juno spacecraft sent stunning images back and they described Jupiter’s northern pole “unlike anything” that they have encountered.

Stronger than expected storm systems and bizarre weather activity were among the items from Juno’s closest flyby to date as the spacecraft hovered  2,500 miles above the clouds of Jupiter.

Scott Bolton, Principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said “ First glimpse of Jupiter’s north pole, looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before. It’s bluer in colour up there  than other parts of the planet and there are a lot of storms”

One discovery made by scientists at NASA was that Jupiter was lacking a hexagon similar to the one found atop of Saturn. On Saturn, the north pole is naturally decorated with a hexagon-shaped storm pattern that is constantly there. Mr Bolton said “ while Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole, there is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet on our solar system is truly unique.”