Blazing Giant

Jupiter appears to be ablaze in this infrared view from the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. Astronomers snapped many images of the giant planet, then combined the best ones to produce this view. Brighter bands have thinner cloud cover, allowing the telescope to see deeper into Jupiter's atmosphere, where temperatures are warmer. The Gemini observations are combined with those of Hubble Space Telescope to support the Juno spacecraft, which is orbiting Jupiter. The combination of views has revealed new details about lightning and other storm-related phenomena on the solar system's largest planet. [International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M.H. Wong (UC, Berkeley) and team]