Citizen scientists study Jupiter’s storms using Juno images

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Citizen scientists classify Jupiter’s storms

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been sending back stunning views of Jupiter and its moons since it arrived at the gas giant planet in 2016. On November 4, 2024, the American Astronomical Society said a team of scientists recently reported the results of the Jovian Vortex Hunter citizen science project. This project used some 5,000 volunteers to classify storms on Jupiter.

The AAS said:

This project aims to advance our understanding of how Jovian vortices like the famous Great Red Spot form and evolve over time. The volunteers identified, located and described 7,000 vortices, and their annotations led to some surprising findings, including an apparent correlation between the color of the vortex — related to its chemistry — and its size and location. For example, white or brown vortices seem to be larger than red or cloud-free vortices, and while white and cloud-free vortices tend to linger near the poles and brown vortices span moderate latitudes, red vortices crop up in specific latitude bands.

The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in The Planetary Science Journal on September 19, 2024.

Juno’s stunning images

Jupiter is the largest gas giant planet in our solar system, and it has no solid surface. Below are some more stunning views of cyclones and vortices swirling in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Bottom line: Enjoy these views of Jupiter’s storms from the Juno spacecraft. Recently, citizen scientists helped classify storms on Jupiter to get a better understanding of how such vortices change over time.

Source: Jovian Vortex Hunter: A Citizen Science Project to Study Jupiter’s Vortices

Via AAS