One last glimpse of Jupiter before Juno’s arrival

Scientists have used ESA’s Venus Express to characterise the wind and upper cloud patterns on the night side of Venus for the first time-with surprising results.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a jaw-dropping down-the-throat view of a huge storm swirling in Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere earlier this month, a 2,000-kilometre-wide cyclonic system in the giant planet’s northern hemisphere.

In the remaining days of October and early into November, a fascinating series of planetary peregrinations plays out low in the East before dawn twilight gets too bright. Venus, like a sprinter on the inside lane of a running track, overtakes both Jupiter in Mars in two readily observable conjunctions set against the stellar backdrop of constellations Leo and Virgo.