Jupiter’s north pole looks like a pizza

As frequent readers of this website will know, Jupiter received a visitor in July of 2016 named Juno. And the sights that this awesome space probe have treated us to so far are nothing short of incredible. And it's not done.

Its primary mission goes until July of 2018—then NASA will make a decision about whether to extend its duties. And put it this way... if it keeps sending back stuff like this, it can hang around our solar system's largest planet as long as it wants. Presenting the storms of Jupiter's north pole!

It's not really that colour, right?

In real life, no. But because this part of the planet is quite dark, the video quickly switches to an infrared view, so that we can see the difference in the surface clouds based on their temperatures. Hello, Pizza Vision™! And what are we looking at?

What may look like the greasiest chesse and pepperoni pie in the universe is actually a series of enormous storms found on Jupiter's north pole. There is one giant central storm in the middle. Then around it are eight additional cyclones. Each of these cyclones is as wide as the Moon, by the way.

And while the infrared makes these storms seem like flaming cauldrons of lava, they are actually very cold. NASA says that the red areas are about -118°C (-181°F). Suddenly, these April snowstorms across much of North America don't seem so bad!

Juno will continue its exploration of Jupiter in the next few months. Does its south pole look like a dozen donuts? Is there macaroni and cheese at the equator? We can't wait to find out ...