Jupiter's North Pole (HR)

Da "NASA - Picture of the Day" dell'11-09-2005:"Gas giant Jupiter is the Solar System's largest world with about 320 times the mass of Earth. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, also visible in very modest sized telescopes.
The dark belts and light-colored zones of Jupiter's cloud bands are organized by the Planet's girdling winds which reach speeds of up to 500 Km/hour. On toward the Jovian poles though, the cloud structures become more mottled and convoluted until, as in this Cassini spacecraft mosaic of Jupiter, the Planet's Polar Region begins to look something like a brain. This striking equator-to-pole change in cloud patterns is not presently understood, but may be due in part to the effect of Jupiter's rapid rotation or to convection vortices generated at high latitudes by the massive Planet's internal heat loss.
Cassini took this dramatically detailed view of Jupiter in December 2000, during its flyby enroute to Saturn".