NASA scientists wax poetic about Jupiter photos

New data and picturesof Jupiter and its moons taken by the New Horizons spacecraft earlier this year are causing excitement among NASA scientists.

One picture highlighted with yellow and purple remindedproject scientistHal Weaver of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, he said Tuesday.

The pictures include the Little Red Spot storm on Jupiter, dust and boulders in the planet's rings and a volcanic eruption on the moon Io.

The cascade from Io's volcano Tvashtar "reminds me of a waterfall," John Spencer, science team deputy lead, said in a televised briefing. The plume had never been seen in such detail before, and "it was really exciting Io performed for us."

New Horizons, which is aimed at Pluto eight years away, swung to within 2.25 million kilometres of Jupiter on Feb. 28. It has been sending back"a very diverse and rich data set" since then, said Alan Stern, principal investigator of the mission.

Sterngotmost excited when a picture of one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, flashed on the screen. "If you haven't been to Jupiter yet, you have now,"he said.

Jeff Moore, head of the science team, said the pictures ofJupiter's rings were the best ever. Boulders and clouds of dust in the rings reflect the light, giving them a solid appearance.

Ganymede, the largest of Jupiter's moons, appears as blue and brown when colours are added to infrared images. But the data will also reveal the moon's chemical composition. "That's what we're really after," said Weaver.

He also commented on information about the meteorology of the Great and Little Red Spots, storm systems on Jupiter. The pictures of the "infant red storm system," 70 per cent of the Earth's diameter, resolve to about 16 kilometres across.

The Jupiter flyby was a stress testfor boththespacecraft and team, andeach did well, Stern said.

As New Horizons neared Jupiter,its seven cameras and sensors were aimed at the planet and its four largest moons, storing data from nearly 700 observations before sending it back to NASA.

New Horizons took flight in January 2006. It passed close to Jupiter to take advantage of the planet's gravity and add about14,000km/h to its speed, pushing it past 80,000 km/h.

The extra speed will cut three years from the travel time to Pluto. The ETA is now July 2015.

There is still more data to come, both from the observations of Jupiter which have yet to be sent to NASA, and fromNew Horizons' flight down Jupiter's long magnetotail, the charged particles trailingthe planet on the side facing away from the sun.

It's now 160 million kilometres from Jupiter, and will analyze those particles on the way to Pluto,"the complete unknown," Stern said.