NASA scientists made a bunch of new discoveries in 2020 using data from its Juno spacecraft at ... [+] Jupiter.

A $1.1 billion NASA spacecraft orbiting Jupiter since 2016 has sent back its latest batch of close-up photos of the giant gas planet after completing another year of its science mission.

NASAs Juno, which launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter five years later, has been in a highly elliptical polar orbit of Jupiter that sees it perform a close flyby only once every 53 days.

Juno had originally been intended to orbit Jupiter every 14 days, but the orbit was changed after worries about valves on Junos fuel system.

Its latest flyby or perijoveits 31st in totalsaw it get within 3,000 miles/5,000 kilometers of Jupiters surface.

Jupiter as seen on 2020-08-20 and processed by citizen scientists Kevin M. Gill.

The images returned to Earth via NASAs Deep Space Network arrives as raw unprocessed data. Thats because the JunoCam cameraequipped with a two megapixel image sensortakes photographs as it spins, producing strips of images rather than ready-to-view photos.

Junos raw image data is then painstakingly merged and processedand their color and contrast painstakingly enhancedby a citizen scientists such as Kevin M. Gill (who has so far published a new image of Jupiters Great Red Spot), Sean Dorn and Gerald Eichstdt, Brian Swift, Rita Najm (among many others), whose work is then shared online and made publicly available.

Roses on Jupiter, a image from February 17, 2020 processed by citizen scientist Rita Najm, shows ... [+] Jupiter from an altitude of about 7,900 miles/12,700 kilometers above the planets cloud tops. It gives the impression of a painting that's ready to be framed.

However, NASAs solar-powered Jupiter explorer is not just about images and outreach. Its mission is to peer below Jupiters dense cover of clouds to solve mysteries about the gas giants formation and evolution as well as its gravity and magnetic fields, atmospheric dynamics and composition.

In this animated GIF, the clouds on the periphery of some of Jupiter's polar cyclones rotate ... [+] counterclockwise, while the core of the cyclones rotate clockwise. The JunoCam images used for this animation were taken from altitudes of about 18,000 miles (28,567 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops. Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstdt processed the images to enhance the color and contrast.

A key success from Junos mission in 2020 has been its imaging of all eight circumpolar cyclones around a central cyclone located at Jupiters north pole. Ranging from 1,500 miles/2,400 kilometers to 1,740 miles/2,800 kilometers, these cyclones are in a strange yet stable octogonal arrangement.

The original JunoCam images used to produce the composite photo above were taken during flybys on February 17, April 10, June 2, and July 25, 2020. That was necessary because JunoCam only deals in visible light.

This composite of images from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft shows the eight ... [+] circumpolar cyclones around a central cyclone located at Jupiter's north pole.

Junos elliptical orbit is slowly changing, and with each close flyby it gets closer to the planets north pole. While at the start of its mission the northern polar cyclone was hidden in polar night, as the Sun moves toward the northern hemisphere its emerging into the daylight.

These images from NASA's Juno mission show three views of a Jupiter "hot spot" - a break in ... [+] Jupiter's cloud deck that provides a glimpse into the planet's deep atmosphere. The pictures were taken by the JunoCam imager during the spacecraft's 29th close flyby of the giant planet on Sept. 16, 2020.

Junos high-resolution data has also in 2020 revealed more about the planets mysterious hot spots in the cold upper reaches of Jupiters atmosphere, which now appear to be windows through its dense clouds. Flanked by active storms and causing shallow lightning, these hotspots provide a glimpse into Jupiters deep atmosphere.

Giant planets have deep atmospheres without a solid or liquid base like Earth, said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Junos observations are shedding light on old mysteries and posing new questions not only about Jupiter, but about all gas giant worlds.

This illustration uses data obtained by NASA's Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical ... [+] storms on Jupiter. Juno's sensitive Stellar Reference Unit camera detected unusual lightning flashes on Jupiter's dark side during the spacecraft's close flybys of the planet.

It also gave rise to a new theory about mushballs in Jupiters atmosphere. High up in the atmosphere, where shallow lightning is seen, water and ammonia are combined and become invisible to Junos microwave instrument. This is where a special kind of hailstone that we call mushballs are forming, said Tristan Guillot, a Juno co-investigator at the Universit Cte d'Azur in Nice, France. These mushballs get heavy and fall deep into the atmosphere, creating a large region that is depleted of both ammonia and water. Once the mushballs melt and evaporate, the ammonia and water change back to a gaseous state and are visible to Juno again.

Jupiter, as taken by NASA Juno during its recent perijove 27, and processed by citizen scientist ... [+] Kevin M. Gill.

Junos mission is scheduled to end in July 2021, when on its 35th orbit it will crash into Jupiter and be destroyed. However, there are plans to-be-confirmed that would see Juno continue its oval-shaped orbits of the planet and get closer to the aurora visible in its polar regions as well as its faint rings.

During an extended mission, Junos north-shifting orbit would also see it perform close flybys of three of Jupiters largest moonsGanymede (mid 2021), Europa (late 2022) and Io.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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In Photos: A Year At Jupiter As Seen By NASAs $1.1 Billion Spacecraft As It Completes 31st Orbit - Forbes