First image of Jupiter's south pole aurora

Jupiter's southern aurora was imaged for the first time when it was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft on 27 August 2016. The south pole of Jupiter had been completely elusive to photography by Earth-bound telescopes, and previous missions to Jupiter imaged only equatorial-on aspects of Jupiter. However, the Juno orbiter was placed in such an orbit that it could, for the first time, take pictures of both Jupiter's north and south poles. The largest planet in the solar system naturally has the strongest magnetic fields and hence the most active auroras. These northern and southern lights have only been glimpsed up until Juno captured their stunning beauty with its Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) camera that works at wavelengths just beyond human vision.

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