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The giant planet Jupiter, in all its glory, is seen again by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in these latest images, taken January 5-6, 2024, from both sides of the planet. Hubble monitors Jupiter and the other planets of the outer solar system every year as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL). The reason for this is that these large worlds are shrouded in clouds and mists stirred up by violent winds, creating a kaleidoscope of ever-changing weather patterns.
The classic Great Red Spot, large enough to swallow Earth, stands out prominently in Jupiter’s atmosphere. At the bottom right, at a more southerly latitude, is a phenomenon sometimes called the Red Spot Jr. is called. This anticyclone is the result of storms that converged in 1998 and 2000, and first appeared red in 2006 before turning light beige again in subsequent years. This year it is a little redder again. The source of the red color is unknown, but it could be a number of chemical compounds: sulfur, phosphorus or organic matter. Red Spot Jr. remains in their orbit but moves in opposite directions, passing the Great Red Spot approximately every two years. Another small red anticyclone appears in the far north.
Storm activity also appears in the other hemisphere. A pair of storms, a deep red cyclone and a reddish anticyclone, appear next to each other to the right of center. They look so red that at first glance it looks like Jupiter has scraped a knee. These storms spin in opposite directions, indicating an alternating pattern of high and low pressure systems. Before the cyclone, there is an upwelling at the edges with descending clouds in the center, causing a clearing in the atmospheric haze.
The storms are expected to bounce past each other as they repel each other due to their opposite clockwise and counterclockwise rotation. “The many large storms and small white clouds are a hallmark of a lot of activity in Jupiter’s atmosphere right now,” said OPAL project leader Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
On the left side of the image is Galilee’s innermost moon, Io – the most volcanically active body in the solar system, despite its small size (only slightly larger than Earth’s moon). Hubble images volcanic deposits on the surface. The Hubble telescope’s sensitivity to blue and violet wavelengths reveals interesting surface features. In 1979, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered Io’s pizza-like appearance and volcanism, surprising planetary scientists because it is such a small moon. Hubble picked up where Voyager left off, monitoring Io year after year.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been in operation for more than three decades and continues to make groundbreaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts science work on the Hubble and Webb telescopes for NASA.
Photo: NASA
2024-03-14 22:24:13
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