Jupiter

Jupiter by Nick Smith. Taken from La Palma, Canary Islands on 15th July 2009. 10 to 15 years ago pictures of this quality were only achievable for those working in Observatories or by using telescopes in space.

The elongated black blob above the white dot on the top right of the picture is a cloud of vapour created by a comet or asteroid which collided with Jupiter in the summer of 2009.

Due to weather on the planet the smoother light band at Jupiter?s Southern hemisphere is not currently visible, so this image shows us Jupiter captured at a particular moment in time