Getting Closer: NASA's Juno Spacecraft Sends Back The First-Ever Images Of Jupiter’s North, South Poles

NASA has released images sent back by its 'Juno' spacecraft, including the first-ever images of Jupiter's north and south poles, which show storm systems and weather activity unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system's gas-giant planets. Juno also snapped pictures of the gas giant's southern auroras, using the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper.

The mission is the first flyby of its kind in a series intended to dig deeper into what makes Jupiter tick. Juno made the journey on Aug. 27 at a range of about 2,500 miles above the planet's clouds. NASA wrote on its website that the Juno Cam transmitted six megabytes of data from its six-hour journey.

A whole new world. My 1st glimpse of #Jupiter’s north pole looks unlike anything seen before https://t.co/OODrfqlCag pic.twitter.com/ghTlibdxaV

— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) September 2, 2016

Juno successfully executed the first of 36 orbital flybys on August 27 when the spacecraft came about 4,200 kilometres above Jupiter's swirling clouds. "First glimpse of Jupiter's north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in the US. "It's bluer in colour up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to - this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter. "We're seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features," said Bolton.

Hot stuff. During #Jupiter approach, I captured the planet’s glow in infrared light https://t.co/mVWrzSlV9o pic.twitter.com/9kaRIl2k9n — NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) September 2, 2016

NASA added that in addition to photos, all eight of Juno's science instruments collected data. The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency, acquired some remarkable images of Jupiter at its north and south polar regions in infrared wavelengths, reports Indian Express. "JIRAM is getting under Jupiter's skin, giving us our first infrared close-ups of the planet," said Alberto Adriani, JIRAM co-investigator from Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome. "Now, with JIRAM, we see that it appears to be very bright and well-structured. The high level of detail in the images will tell us more about the aurora's morphology and dynamics," Adriani added.

According to Futurism, in addition to new discoveries, the mission's Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment, known as Waves, also recorded "ghostly-sounding" transmissions from the planet. NASA wrote that although the sounds have been known about since the 1950s, this is the closest point they have been analyzed from.