NASA’s Juno mission captures reddest object in solar system

NASA's Juno missionclicked captivating views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the planet on March 7, 2024, according to an official readout along with images captured by the mission. The images show a good look of Jupiter's remarkably colourful belts and swirling storms.

The images also provide a good view of the Great Red Spot, the most recognisable feature of Jupiter due to its red-orange colour whose origin is still unknown. The Great Red Spot is a persistent high-pressure region in the atmosphere of Jupiter that produces an anticyclonic storm, the largest of its kind in the Solar System.

A close examination of the Juno mission reveals something more: two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea.

What is Amalthea?

Amalthea is a potato-like natural satellite of Jupiter. With a radius of just 52 miles (84 kilometres), it lacks the mass to pull itself into a spherical shape. In 2000, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed some surface features of this Jovial Moon, including impact craters, hills, and valleys.

Amalthea circles Jupiter inside Io’s orbit, the innermost of the planet’s four largest moons. It takes about 12 Earth hours for Amalthea to complete one orbit.

What makes Amalthea unique?

Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, according to an official NASA readout.

Also watch |Gravitas: Life beyond Earth? NASA probe bound for Jupiter's moon

Observations indicate that it gives out more heat than it receives from the Sun. This is because, as it orbits within Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, electric currents are induced in its core. Alternatively, the heat could be from tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity, the NASA readout adds.

How Juno spacecraft clicked Amalthea?

The Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometres) above Jupiter’s cloud, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator, when these images were taken.

Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt made these images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying processing techniques to enhance the clarity of the images, NASA readout added.

(With inputs from agencies)