The Photoshoppers Behind Dreamy Jupiter Photos

In the early 1880s, the French astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot published a dreamy illustration of Jupiter based on his telescope observations. Back then, the gas giant looked, through telescopes, like a fuzzy, gray marble, a dust particle hanging in the night sky. Trouvelot, who in his life created 7,000 astronomical drawings, sought to add a little more detail to the picture to enhance the planet’s features.

“My intent is ... to represent the celestial phenomena as they appear to the trained eye and to an experienced draughtsman through the great modern telescopes provided with the most delicate appliances,” he wrote at the time. He drew, with distinct lines and colors, Jupiter’s bands of swirling clouds and its trademark blotch, the Great Red Spot. “My aim is to combine ... accuracy in details ... with