NASA's New Horizons spacecraft sent to Pluto today approached the closest possible distance to Jupiter on its way. Cnet published images of the planet and its satellites made by the device this week:



Photo of Jupiter, taken March 1.



Jupiter is near.



Photo of a “small red spot”, a huge atmospheric vortex on the planet, formed in the last decade and changed its color to red about a year ago.



These are photographs of the volcanic active satellite of Jupiter Io, taken on February 26 at a distance of 4 million kilometers.

The umbrella-like formation seen in the 11 o'clock direction in the right photo is a huge dust dome from Tvashtar volcano, reaching a height of 240 km above the surface. The irregularities on the right side of Io are rock formations in the rays of the setting sun.



Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system. In this photograph, taken on February 27 at a distance of 3.5 million km., Dark areas of ancient rocks and light areas of newer materials are visible. Later craters form huge areas of ice on the surface.



A snapshot of the icy satellite of Jupiter, Europe, approximately the size of the Earth’s moon. Scientists believe that under the frozen surface there is an ocean about 100 km thick. and they will carefully analyze the data sent by the device to find what will confirm this theory.



NASA Scientists Team Responsible for New Horizons

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