Nasa ’s Juno probe has captured a stunning image of Jupiter that bears an uncanny resemblance to Van Gogh’s famous painting, Starry Night.
The spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, was just over one Earth diameter away from the surface of Jupiter when it captured the incredible image.
Jupiter’s tumultuous atmosphere can be seen in the image, with storms swirling over the planet.
A spokesperson for Nasa said: “Jupiter completely fills the image, with only a hint of the terminator (where daylight fades to night) in the upper right corner, and no visible limb (the curved edge of the planet).”
The image, which shows Jupiter’s northern hemisphere, was taken by Juno on December 16 at 09:43 PST (12:43 EST), from 8,292 miles (13,345 kilometres) above the tops of Jupiter’s clouds, at a latitude of 48.9 degrees.
The colourful, turbulent clouds in the image look just like the swirling skies in Starry Night, one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, created in 1889.
Juno has now completed nine flybys of Jupiter, providing unprecedented data about the mysterious planet.
