Jupiter's South Pole

90°S 0°W / 90°S -0°E / -90; -0

The South Pole of Jupiter was first photographed in detail by the Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter in July 2016 and entered a polar orbit. In the images it returned, six cyclones were discovered at the planet's south pole:^[1] one in the center and five around it, with their centers approximately forming a regular pentagon. Each cyclone was about 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) in diameter, with a wind speed of about 360 kilometres per hour (220 mph). All of them were rotating clockwise. A similar picture at the North Pole of Jupiter presents nine cyclones of similar size: one in the center, and eight around it, rotating counterclockwise.

Before Juno, only the Galileo probe had orbited Jupiter, from 1995 to 2003; however, its orbital inclination made it impossible to observe the polar regions of Jupiter; Cassini, which flew past Jupiter in 2000, also had no opportunity to photograph the polar regions. Thus, they remained largely unknown until 2016 (the images of the previous flyby missions and Earth telescopes had low resolution); however, in 2000, the polar X-ray spots of Jupiter (the southern one is significantly weaker than the northern one) were detected.

Jupiter's geographic south pole is also the location of its magnetic South Pole (the planet does not have a well-defined magnetic North Pole).^[2]