NASAが公式サイトに木星の画像を掲載し、それを通信社が新聞やネットの大手メディアに配信しています。
しかし、これらの画像はNASAの木星探査機ジュノーに搭載されたジュノーカムの撮影画像を民間人が画像処理して作成しているものです。
NASAのサイトでは”Image of the Day”「今日の画像」というコラムのようなところで紹介している(「視聴者の作品」みたいな)のですが、日本のメディアではNASAが何かしら新たな事実を発見したような報道扱いになってしまっています。
NASAのオリジナル記事はこちら
July 2, 2018 Seeing Jupiter
This image of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on the outbound leg of a close flyby of the gas-giant planet. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.
The color-enhanced image was taken at 11:31 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (2:31 a.m. EDT on May 24), as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 44,300 miles (71,400 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, above a southern latitude of 71 degrees.
JunoCam takes advantage of Juno’s unique polar orbit, studying the atmospheric dynamics and clouds right up to Jupiter’s poles, which no spacecraft has ever done before.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Last Updated: July 2, 2018
Editor: Yvette Smith
June 22, 2018 Chaotic Clouds of Jupiter
This image captures swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft took this color-enhanced image at 10:23 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (1:23 a.m. EDT on May 24), as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, above a northern latitude of 56 degrees.
The region seen here is somewhat chaotic and turbulent, given the various swirling cloud formations. In general, the darker cloud material is deeper in Jupiter’s atmosphere, while bright cloud material is high. The bright clouds are most likely ammonia or ammonia and water, mixed with a sprinkling of unknown chemical ingredients.
A bright oval at bottom center stands out in the scene. This feature appears uniformly white in ground-based telescope observations. However, with JunoCam we can observe the fine-scale structure within this weather system, including additional structures within it. There is not significant motion apparent in the interior of this feature; like the Great Red Spot, its winds probably slows down greatly toward the center.
Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam
More information about Juno is at:https://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu
Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran
Last Updated: June 26, 2018
Editor: Tony Greicius