Last month NASA's Juno spacecraft approached Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, closer than any probe in more than twenty years. Shortly after the spacecraft had its 34th flyby of Jupiter, traveling from pole to pole and recording the gas giant's turbulent atmosphere.

Utilizing imagery captured by the probe's JunoCam, mission researchers stitched together an animation they call the "starship captain" point of view of Ganymede and Jupiter. The footage shows in stunning detail the ice-encrusted moon's dark and light regions as well as the Tros crater scar. "The animation shows just how beautiful deep space exploration can be," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton.