Kerala youth on cloud nine after NASA publishes Jupiter images processed by him

Navaneeth Krishnan S of Angamaly in Kerala is on cloud nine after US space agency NASA published a few images of its Jupiter Mission processed by him.

In the latest, NASA published an image, taken by JunoCam aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which was processed by Navaneeth Krishnan. NASA also gave credit to him for enhancing the colour and contrast of the image.

“This is for the fourth time, NASA is publishing an image processed by me. In fact, it’s a recognition for my small effort. Hundreds of people across the globe are downloading the raw images released by NASA from its Jupiter mission as part of a public engagement project and are processing it. I am really happy. It’s also an opportunity to interact online with the staff of NASA,” said 43-year-old Navaneeth, a staff member of Kerala State Institute of Children’s Literature.

Navaneeth, who has done his Masters in Physics and is passionate about astro-physics, uses Adobe and other softwares like GIMP and G’ Mic – QT to process the raw images, which are released by NASA for the public to download and work on.

“Anyone can download the raw images and work on it. NASA has been doing it as a public connect initiative. There is no monetary aspect. But space enthusiasts from across the world participate in it,” Navaneeth said.

Navaneeth hasn’t done any professional courses on photo editing but mastered the skills from information available in public domains mainly YouTube. Navaneeth says that schools and colleges in the state should make use of the public outreach programmes of agencies like NASA to instill more interest in space among students. “Many don’t know about these kinds of programmes offered by NASA to the public,” he said.

The latest photo which Navaneeth worked on was that of Jupiter’s northernmost cyclone, perched near the gas giant’s north pole, and was taken on September 29, 2022 by JunoCam public engagement camera aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Publishing the image, NASA said “Jupiter has eight circumpolar cyclones, and four are visible in this image, framing the northernmost cyclone. A small anticyclone (which spins counterclockwise) has wedged its way in just above the northernmost cyclone. This image was acquired on Juno’s 45th pass of Jupiter from an altitude of 17,248 miles (27,758 kilometers) and shows features as small as 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) across. Citizen scientist Navaneeth Krishnan S processed the images to enhance the color and contrast.”