Citizen scientist turns Juno image into art

March 28 (UPI) -- Often, NASA's public images don't need enhancement. They're awe-inspiring as they are. But one recent image of Jupiter's surface required a few tweaks.

Those tweaks were provided by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko. Thanks to Tkachenko, some viewers might mistake the edited image for a piece of art.

The image, captured by the JunoCam, features a hypnotic confluence of swirling Jovian storms. Before it was selected for augmentation, the image, titled "Dark Spot," was difficult to make out. It was dull and lacking detail.

Tkachenko brightened the image and altered the color values to enhance the details of the spinning storm clouds. He also rotated the image 90 degrees, lending a pleasing horizontal, yin-and-yang symmetry to the image.

Among the circling clouds are two main, cyclone-like storm systems, one "dark spot" on the right half and a larger storm with tall, bright clouds on the left -- reminiscent of a spiral galaxy.

Citizen scientists inspired by Tkachenko's work can find their own raw image to manipulate at the homepage of NASA's Juno mission.