Why’s it blue?
This is a really good question. I suspect the color in the image has been enhanced. I’ve been trying to find a scientific reason that the clouds could appear blue, but haven’t found anything conclusive.
However, I did find a NASA page with raw images of Jupiter.
Here’s a raw image:
Here’s an image that’s been color-enhanced:
It’s not uncommon for space images to be color-enhanced. On the one hand, it may feel less authentic. On the other hand, the visible light levels in space may be insufficient for our expectations and uses anyway. Although I don’t know the origin of the picture at the top of this page, I know that it’s common practice for space photos to be enhanced. In fact they’re often taken in non-visible spectrums and fully converted to something humans can see and comprehend. Ever see detailed, colorful photos of galaxies? They were probably taken in X-ray and colorized in processing. Cool as it would be, you wouldn’t see those colors in real life.
The junocam page has raw shots from the actual device: https://www.msss.com/all_projects/junocam.php
Caption of another:
Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection.
In other words, the images you see are heavily processed composites…
Dare I say, “AI enhanced,” as they sometimes do use ML algorithms for astronomy. Though ones designed for scientific usefulness, of course, and mostly for pattern identification in bulk data AFAIK.
I believe the image is from one of the poles, rather than the side view we usually see.
