NASA's Juno probe snaps STUNNING photo of 'intensely dark' vortex on Jupiter

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this image as one of Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpieces.

But the image actually shows planet Jupiter, with an ‘intensely dark vortex’ swirling across the surface.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft snapped the stunning photo during its 20th flyby of the planet on May 29. At the time, Juno was about 9,200 miles from the planet’s cloud tops.

NASA explained: “NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of an area within a Jovian jet stream showing a vortex that has an intensely dark centre.

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, having undertaken a five-year cruise to the planet (NASA)

“Nearby, other features display bright, high altitude clouds that have puffed up into the sunlight.”

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created the image using data from Juno’s JunoCam imager, and named it ‘Jupiter Abyss’.

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, having undertaken a five-year cruise to the planet.

If you want to see where the spacecraft currently is for yourself, you can use NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System tracker.

NASA said: “Using NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System and simulated data from the Juno flight team you can ride onboard the Juno spacecraft in real-time at any moment during the entire mission.”

You can access the tracker here .