Mystery Pioneer Image Of Jupiter Options

[gndonald]

This is my first post on this forum, so I thought I'd try and make it interesting

I own a book entitled "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space Exploration" (Richard S Lewis, Salamander Books, 1983). It is a 'coffee table' history of space exploration up to that point.

One picture on page 203 is . It is an image of the north temperate region of Jupiter allegedly taken by Pioneer 10.

What the picture also shows is what appears to be a 'spacecraft' flying across the image from upper left to upper right leaving a bluish exhaust trail.

I had planned to include a scan of the image, but my scanner is kaput, so the directions will have to suffice.

First, has anyone else seen the picture in question?

Second, does anyone have any idea what might have produced this picture (other than a 'spacecraft')?

Is there a Pioneer Image archive?

[TheChemist]

What kind of image is this, could it maybe a drawing ?
Jupiter appears as an "hexagonal" network of red and yellow colors (much like C-60, a fullerene )
The rocket is clearly added afterwards, maybe this was a joke for the book editor ?

[um3k]

Jupiter appears as an "hexagonal" network of red and yellow colors (much like C-60, a fullerene  )

That is an artifact of the scanning (presumably).

[gndonald]

That is an artifact of the scanning (presumably).

The hexagonal effect on the image of Jupiter is indeed a result of the scanning process, sadly the resolution settings were in the hands of the person who owned the net cafe and not myself.

However the 'rocketship' in the upper left is, sadly, not an artifact of the scanning process.

[JRehling]

the 'rocketship' in the upper left is, sadly, not an artifact of the scanning process.

Note that three anomalies in the image are neatly parallel* to the top and bottom margins of the image: (A) The "spacecraft", ( its "exhaust", and a line, ©, rather like the "exhaust" that is closer to the top of the image. C is, like B, more prominent to the right, and gently fades to the left.

A and B both seem to amount to an overconcentration of lightness around a horizontal line. C seems to fit the bill, too. I wonder if all three aren't due to something happening to a hardcopy at some intermediate stage in an old printing process. For example, if the image was scanned (before publication of the book) from left to right, and grit in the scanner peeled off toner from the original image on two horizontal lines. In the case of C, the grit made its way fully across the image. In the case of B, the grit got fully wedged at position A, finally sticking and making a big mess there, but ending the track so that it doesn't cross the page fully. I've seen this kind of thing in other images, although they are rarer in the digital era.

* = B is not perfectly parallel with respect to the posted JPG, but is so within 2 pixels over a run of 100 pixels wide. This is probably with the ability of someone aligning a document on a flatbed scanner to put a book down neatly.