NASA's Juno spacecraft recently made a close flyby of Jupiter's frozen moon Europa, and citizen scientists have contributed some interesting insights from their observations. JunoCam is the spacecraft's public-engagement camera, and its raw photos have been used to make stunning deep-space photographs of Jupiter's moon that need additional research analysis.
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“Starting with our flyby of Earth back in 2013, Juno citizen scientists have been invaluable in processing the numerous images we get with Juno,” said Southwest Research Center principal investigator Scott Bolton.
“During each flyby of Jupiter, and now its moons, their work provides a perspective that draws upon both science and art. They are a crucial part of our team, leading the way by using our images for new discoveries. These latest images from Europa do just that, pointing us to surface features that reveal details on how Europa works and what might be lurking both on top of the ice and below,” he added.
On September 29th, during its flyby of Europa, JunoCam took four images. The following picture was captured by JunoCam at an altitude of 1,521 kilometres (945 miles) over an area of the moon referred to as Annwn Regio. The picture shows the harsh landscape that lies on either side of the day-night line. There are many bright and dark ridges and bands stretching over a broken surface, alluding to the geological forces that the moon has suffered throughout the aeons. Callanish Crater is the black, round area on the right side of the image.
Maps based on data from NASA's Voyager and Galileo missions are improved with the aid of JunoCam imagery like this. Image processing by citizen scientist Björn Jónsson brought out better hues and contrast. About one kilometre (0.6 miles) separates each individual pixel.
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Many citizen-processed JunoCam photos include elements of both science and art. Larger surface details in the picture on the right, treated by Navaneeth Krishnan, show out more clearly due to the increased colour contrast compared to the minimally processed version of the image (left). The improved picture shows an example of this effect ,where pits and a tiny block produce noticeable shadows. The picture brings us closer to Europa's alien world, but more study of the fine-scale texturing of the surface is required to discriminate between features and artefacts from processing.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory oversees the Juno project for the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, controlled by the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.
