NASA has released the first close-up images of Jupiter’s north pole captured by the Juno spacecraft, taken during the probe’s first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. “The images show storm systems and weather activity unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system’s gas-giant planets,” writes Tony Greicius via NASA. NPR reports: “NASA also released an image of Jupiter’s southern aurora, a unique view that could be captured only by a spacecraft close to Jupiter. The aurora occurs when energized particles from the sun interact with Jupiter’s atmosphere near the planet’s poles. The space agency also released audio of what the aurora sounds like if you convert it to a frequency the human ear can hear. The pictures and data were collected Aug. 27, when June made the first of some three dozen scheduled close encounters with Jupiter. At its closest approach, the spacecraft was a mere 2,500 miles above the planet’s cloud tops.” The images can be found here. You can also listen to Jupiter’s auroras via YouTube. Spoiler: they sound like a dial-up modem.

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Source: Slashdot – NASA Releases First-Ever Close-Up Images of Jupiter’s North Pole