Nasa's Juno probe sends back new pictures of Jupiter
- Published
An infrared image of an aurora at Jupiter's south pole - something never seen before
Nasa has released spectacular new images of Jupiter taken by its Juno probe.
The pictures show the north and south poles of the gas giant - images that no previous mission has managed to show in such detail.
Jupiter's south pole
Juno took this picture as it flew over the north pole, from a distance of 195,000km
Juno took the images last weekend as it made its first close pass of the planet since it went into orbit in July.
Naz spoke to space scientist Dr Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, who is a member of the Juno mission's science team.
Juno scientist tells Newsround about the latest Jupiter images
He told Newsround: "We're learning about the formation of Jupiter and that's really important for the formation of the Solar System as a whole."
Juno's quest is to investigate the secrets of the Solar System by finding out more about its biggest planet - Jupiter.
The spacecraft is currently flying around Jupiter on a course that takes 53 days to complete.
Jupiter facts
Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive
It takes 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun; a "day" is 10 hours long
Jupiter's "stripes" are created by strong east-west winds
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm twice as wide as Earth
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