Praise Cthulhu! NASA’s Juno spacecraft has just delivered the most incredible images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot—and that’s a really high bar to clear. The spacecraft has spent the last year beaming back some of the most mind-blowing images of the gas giant. But today’s batch marks a historic moment for the orbiter, which got closer to the Great Red Spot than ever before on Monday, July 10th. Although all Juno pics are ethereally beautiful, these Great Red Spot snaps just absurd. Seriously, how dare you go and be this beautiful, Jupiter.
Even the unprocessed images of the storm, the first of which you can check out on the JunoCam website, are spectacular. Here’s a shot with the Great Red Spot looking so placid you might forget it rages with winds up to 400 miles an hour. Or that it’s 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) wide.
The JunoCam community, a group of citizen scientists who process these images to create art, has already pounced upon the new pics and taken them to another level. Seriously, folks, this is where the magic happens:
Some are even taking their art a step further, animating the images:
More magnificent pics are sure to crop up in the coming days. If you’d like to take a stab at colorizing this beast for yourself, head over to JunoCam’s site. Remember to share your creations with us in the comments!