what is a closureobject in jquery code example

Example: closure in javascript

var counter = (function() {
  var privateCounter = 0;
  function changeBy(val) {
    privateCounter += val;
  }
  return {
    increment: function() {
      changeBy(1);
    },
    decrement: function() {
      changeBy(-1);
    },
    value: function() {
      return privateCounter;
    }
  };
})();

console.log(counter.value()); // logs 0
counter.increment();
counter.increment();
console.log(counter.value()); // logs 2
counter.decrement();
console.log(counter.value()); // logs 1