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Check out this fascinating new-and-improved video of Jupiter’s swirling cloud belts in action, made up of Voyager 1 image data acquired from January 6 through January 29, 1979. Digital artist Björn Jónsson assembled this high-definition animation from 58 images skillfully color-composited and tweened together to create a smooth video.

The movie is based on 58 orange-green-blue color composites obtained on every Jovian rotation from January 6 to January 29, 1979. Over this period Voyager 1’s distance from Jupiter dropped from 58 to 36 million km so the resolution and sharpness of the frames increases from start to finish. The 58 frames were tweened, increasing the number of frames by a factor of 8 (that is, 7 synthetic frames are inserted between each real frame). – Björn Jónsson

Be sure to check out the video in fullscreen HD 720 on YouTube too!

Voyager 1 was launched in September of 1977 and made its closest pass by Jupiter on March 5, 1979. Completing its Jovian encounter in April, Voyager 1 sent back almost 19,000 images of the giant planet and its moons before continuing on to pass by Saturn. It is now the most distant active spacecraft – and man-made object – still sending back data from the edge of the solar system nearly 11 billion miles away.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Processed by Björn Jónsson

And as an additional bit of coolness, listen to the “sounds” of Jupiter recorded by Voyager as it passed through its powerful magnetic field!