You’ve probably heard of the man on the Moon, but you’ve likely never seen the creepy face that NASA’s Juno probe just discovered on Jupiter. The spacecraft recently made its 54th flyby of our solar system's largest planet, snapping this photo as it passed.
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00:00You've probably heard of the man on the moon, but you've likely never seen the creepy face
00:07that NASA's Juno probe just discovered on Jupiter.
00:11The spacecraft recently made its 54th flyby of our solar system's largest planet, snapping
00:16this photo as it passed.
00:17Jupiter is covered in wild storms, the likes of which we can't even imagine on Earth, and
00:22several of those spinning, Earth-sized tempests recently converged to produce what looks like
00:26a scary face.
00:27The photo was captured on September 7th, as Juno came within 4,800 miles of Jupiter.
00:33It also captured the line of nightfall on the planet, a particularly interesting moment
00:37to scientists, as the lengthening shadows paint a more intricate, sort of 3D picture
00:41for researchers.
00:42Juno has been circling Jupiter since 2016, but we're only just beginning to scratch the
00:46surface with regards to understanding the planet.
00:49Recent observations, for instance, have revealed a change in Jupiter's iconic red spot.
00:53It's now around 10,159 miles wide, or more than 2,000 miles bigger than Earth.
00:59However, that storm, which was first observed by astronomers in 1831, is also shrinking
01:04at an accelerating rate.