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Space geeks tweak NASA images of Jupiter's red spot

NASA asks the public to tweak photos its Juno spacecraft sent back from a big flyby of one of the largest permanent storms roiling in our solar system.

Eric Mack
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
Eric Mack
juno1
1 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Shawn Handran

Jupiter or Middle-earth?

NASA's Juno spacecraft sent back the closest-ever views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot last week and invited the public to pop the raw images into Photoshop to enhance or otherwise pretty them up. The result has been hundreds of new looks for the gas giant and its famous planet-sized storm. 

Here, Shawn Handran used Photoshop with Google Nik to add a nefarious edge to the Great Red Spot, giving it more of an "Eye of Sauron" feel. 

juno4
2 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS /

A storm from all angles

If you could visit the Great Red Spot, which you really don't want to do, it definitely wouldn't be the flat swirls of color it appears to be in two-dimensional images. To give a better picture of its contours, here it is rendered in three dimensions.

juno3
3 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran

Beautiful tumult

Zooming all the way in reveals what looks like multiple monstrous hurricanes making up the larger, tumultuous spot.

hammerhead
4 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Scot Hampton

Hammerhead swirl

The color has been adjusted in this close-up of the almost infinite number of swirling storms in Jupiter's thick atmosphere.

trubelent
5 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Shawn Handran

Turbulence in focus

Running the red spot through a few filters makes it look retro and tumultuous at the same time.

blues
6 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Elena Gissi

Southwestern style gas giant

A bit of color saturation added to Jupiter's "eye."

half
7 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Alex G. Orphanos

Chaotic beauty

This image was post-processed to bring out fine details and colors of a broad swath of the planet.  

soutpole
8 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/hezad

South pole

A color enhanced view of Jupiter's south pole.

earth
9 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran

A hungry storm

Let's hope that big red spot never gets hungry, because it could swallow Earth whole pretty easily. 

fear
10 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Rafa-007

Face Jupiter himself

As if the bone-crushing gravity and pressures of Jupiter weren't enough, some mirroring and filters make it even more freaky.

terminator
11 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Aquidneck Dying Light Photography

Calling John Connor

Is it really a gas giant? Or made up of liquid metal sent back from the future? This enhancement that conjures visions of "Terminator" makes me wonder.

juno2
12 of 20 NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Scot Hampton

Close-up

Look deep into Jupiter's planet-sized storm and you'll wish you had some planet-sized eye drops to offer to this huge, bloodshot feature on the gas giant.

thumb
13 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Ian Robertson

Maximus Spatium

This image runs Jupiter through "contrast color range enhancement plus large flat detail extraction enhancement" to bring out the ... I don't know what, but it looks pretty cool.

green
14 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Ian Robertson

Reds shifted to green

Red is overrated. Here's the same world outfitted with a nifty new green spot.

us
15 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jason Major / Tony Rice

Great American Red Spot?

Though the Great Red spot has shrunk over the years, its size remains impressive yet still hard to conceive without some Earthly comparison.

bright
16 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Adrian Robson-Prigg

In Rainbows

Running Jupiter's profile through a variety of filters provides a more psychedelic view.

painting
17 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Chris Garner

Impressionist giant

Had Juno been beaming images back to the impressionists of the 19th century in Paris, they might have painted it this way. 

blue
18 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Kawczynk

Why not blue?

Even massive storms get the blues, at least in Photoshop they do.  

tiles
19 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / John DeVilbiss

Tiled tumult

Endless fun with effects through software like Photo Lab can produce this abstract crater rendering.

trek
20 of 20 NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Trekkin'

Somebody had to do it. 

New takes on Jupiter and the Great Red Spot continue to be uploaded, and Juno is just getting going with its formal science mission phase that will surely include many more images to come.

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