Space enthusiasts around the world say they see a creature lurking in a new photo of swirly clouds on the planet Jupiter.
NASA took the photo from the Juno spacecraft at around 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 29, as it made its 16th close flyby around the gas giant.
“At the time, Juno was about 4,400 miles from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of approximately 40 degrees north,” NASA said in a written statement.
“A Dragon’s Eye? What do you see within the swirling clouds of Jupiter?” the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Twitter.
Twitter followers came up with a variety of answers. “I see a Squid,” wrote aurora chaser Noel Blaney.
“Quetzalcoatl!” added another follower, referring to the Aztec mythical creature.
Aerospace scientist Astro Yuki said it looked like a dragon.
“A multitude of magnificent, swirling clouds in Jupiter’s dynamic North North Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Appearing in the scene are several bright-white ‘pop-up’ clouds as well as an anticyclonic storm, known as a white oval,” NASA said in a public statement.
The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, and arrived at Jupiter five years later in 2016.
“Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars,” NASA said on its website.
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