The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA)’s “Hubble” space telescopes are under the “OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy)” program, which captures changes in the atmospheres of gas giant planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Jupiter. We have been observing Uranus and Neptune every year since 2014.
The first image is Jupiter taken on November 22, 2022 by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Jupiter’s trademark “Great Red Spot” is invisible because it wraps around to the back side, but it captures the belt-like cloud patterns that produce color changes due to differences in temperature and composition, as well as a series of vortices. .
Jupiter’s moon Io, which has a distinctive orange color, is also visible near the center of the image. Among the four satellites (Galilean satellites) discovered by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century, Io is the closest to Jupiter, and has active volcanic activity due to its interior being heated by the tidal forces of Jupiter and other Galilean satellites. I’m awake Looking to the left of the image, Io’s round shadow falls on Jupiter’s cloud tops.
On the other hand, this image is the image of Jupiter taken by the wide-field camera 3 on January 6, 2023, about two months later. Due to the Earth’s orbit, the distance between Jupiter and Jupiter has increased a little, so it appears smaller than the first image.
In this image, you can see the Great Red Spot right in front of you. According to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates the Hubble Space Telescope, the Great Red Spot has shrunk in size over the past 150 years, but it is still large enough to contain the Earth, which is about 12,700 kilometers in diameter. There is a size of
The moon Ganymede is visible in the lower right corner of the Great Red Spot. Ganymede looks small in front of Jupiter, which is about 11 times the diameter of Earth, but its diameter is about 5268 km, which is larger than the diameter of the planet Mercury (about 4880 km). Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are the main exploration targets of ESA’s JUICE mission, which is scheduled to launch in April 2023. We plan to enter orbit and conduct observations.
Related: ESA’s ‘JUICE’ probe to explore Jupiter’s icy moons arrives at Guiana Space Center, scheduled to launch in April 2023 (February 20, 2023)
Two images of Jupiter and its moons were released by NASA, ESA, and STScI on March 23, 2023.
Source
- Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI)
- NASA – Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons at Jupiter and Uranus
- ESA – Hubble monitors changing weather and seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
- STScI – Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons at Jupiter and Uranus
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