Jupiter's Banded Disc in Infrared With Distant Moon

Jupiter fills the right of a dark, maroon-black square, its disc cut off sharply against the background. The banded atmosphere is rendered in warm creams, pinks and browns, with a broad, almost white equatorial stripe across the middle. Finer, wispy cloud texture shows in the bands above and below it. Near the lower right, a bright white oval stands out, and a small dark spot sits just beside it. At far left, a small dark-centred point is ringed by a bright halo and long diffraction spikes. A faint glow surrounds the planet's edge.

This is an infrared view, so the colours are assigned rather than seen by eye. In infrared, high-altitude hazes and clouds look bright, and deeper, clearer regions look darker. The bright oval is consistent with the Great Red Spot, the giant storm that has lasted for centuries. The small moon at left is Europa, which is thought to hide a salty ocean beneath its icy crust. The spikes around it are an optical effect of the telescope. The square, high-resolution format suits a phone lock screen or a centred desktop background, and the black margins leave room for icons.

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