Bet You Can't Guess Which of These Images is of Earth and Which of Jupiter

Turbulence on both planets produced these incredibly similar patterns. Which one is which?

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By Tom Yulsman
Feb 1, 2022 2:00 AMFeb 1, 2022 6:17 PM
Different Planets, Similar Patterns
Which of these images shows swirls and vortices of plankton in the turbulent Baltic Sea here on Earth, and which one shows vortices in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere? Keep reading to find out. (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)

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When I first saw the images above on NASA's Earth Observatory site, I really couldn't believe it. The swirls and whorls look remarkably similar, yet one was taken by a satellite over Earth's Baltic Sea, and the other by the Juno spacecraft orbiting around Jupiter, hundreds of millions of miles away.

The differences between the two planets couldn't be more stark. Earth is a terrestrial planet made mostly of metal and rock. The other terrestrial planets within the inner solar system are Venus, Mars, and Mercury. (You can think of the Moon as kind of an honorary terrestrial planet.)

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