Watch the king of the planets turn on its throne

Data collected by the Galileo spacecraft during a 1997 flyby of Jupiter’s moon Europa indicate the probe likely flew through a plume of water vapor, the latest evidence the icy moon likely harbours a vast sub-surface ocean beneath its frozen crust.

This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s bands of light and dark clouds was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study aurorae — stunning light shows in a planet’s atmosphere — on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. This observation program is supported by measurements made by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, shortly to arrive at the gas giant.