NASA’s Juno spacecraft has caught on camera the seventh of eight features forming a ‘string of pearls’ on Jupiter — massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere, NASA reports.
Since 1986, these white ovals have varied in number from six to nine. There are currently eight white ovals visible.
The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011 and entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016.
JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera designed to capture remarkable pictures of Jupiter’s poles and cloud tops. It was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement, but the images will be helpful to the science team too.