Jupiter: the "King" and His Moons
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Jupiter-PIA02873.jpgJupiter, from Cassini56 visiteOriginal caption:"This true-color simulated view of Jupiter is composed of 4 images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 7, 2000. To illustrate what Jupiter would have looked like if the cameras had a field-of-view large enough to capture the entire Planet, the cylindrical map was projected onto a globe. The resolution is about 144 Km (about 89 miles) per pixel. Jupiter's moon Europa is casting the shadow on the Giant Gas Planet".
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Jupiter-PIA02880.jpgThe "Heat" of Jupiter55 visiteOriginal caption:"These images taken through the wide angle camera near closest approach in the deep near-infrared methane band, combined with filters which sense electromagnetic radiation of orthogonal polarization, show that the light from the Poles of Jupiter is "polarized".
That is, the Poles appear bright in one image, and dark in the other. Polarized light is most readily scattered by aerosols. These images indicate that the aerosol particles at Jupiter's Poles are small and likely consist of aggregates of even smaller particles, whereas the particles at the Equator and covering the Great Red Spot are larger.
Images like these will allow scientists to ascertain the distribution, size and shape of aerosols, and consequently, the distribution of heat, in Jupiter's atmosphere".
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Jupiter-PIA10076.jpgAmmonia Ice-Clouds on Jupiter56 visiteCaption NASA:"The top cloud layer on Jupiter is thought to consist of ammonia ice, but most of that ammonia "hides" from spectrometers. It does not absorb light in the same way ammonia does. To many scientists, this implies that ammonia churned up from lower layers of the atmosphere "ages" in some way after it condenses, possibly by being covered with a photochemically generated hydrocarbon mixture.
The New Horizons Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), the half of the Ralph instrument that is able to see in infrared wavelengths that are absorbed by ammonia ice, spotted these clouds and watched them evolve over 5 Jupiter days (about 40 Earth hours). In these images, spectroscopically identified fresh ammonia clouds are shown in bright blue. The largest cloud appeared as a localized source on day 1, intensified and broadened on day 2, became more diffuse on days 3 and 4, and disappeared on day 5.
The diffusion seemed to follow the movement of a dark spot along the boundary of the oval region. Because the source of this ammonia lies deeper than the cloud, images like these can tell scientists much about the dynamics and heat conduction in Jupiter's lower atmosphere".MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA10096.jpgPolar Lightning on Jupiter56 visiteCaption NASA:"Images taken by the New Horizons Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) of Jupiter's night side showed lightning strikes.
Each "strike" is probably the cumulative brightness of multiple strikes. This is the first lightning seen at High Latitudes on Jupiter; it demonstrates that convection is not confined to lower latitudes, implying an internal driving heat source.
Their power is consistent with previous lightning measurements at Jupiter's Lower Latitudes, equivalent to extremely bright terrestrial "super bolts".MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA10097.jpgAtmospheric Waves56 visiteWith its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), half of the Ralph instrument, New Horizons captured several pictures of mesoscale gravity waves in Jupiter's Equatorial Atmosphere. Buoyancy waves of this type are seen frequently on Earth - for example, they can be caused when air flows over a mountain and a regular cloud pattern forms downstream. In Jupiter's case there are no mountains, but if conditions in the atmosphere are just right, it is possible to form long trains of these small waves.
The source of the wave excitation seems to lie deep in Jupiter's atmosphere, below the visible cloud layers at depths corresponding to pressures 10 times that at Earth's surface. The New Horizons measurements showed that the waves move about 100 mt-per-second faster than surrounding clouds; this is about 25% of the speed of sound on Earth and is much greater than current models of these waves predict.
Scientists can "read" the speed and patterns these waves to learn more about activity and stability in the atmospheric layers below".MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA12869.jpgHow "Hot " is Jupiter?57 visiteCaption NASA:"New thermal images from powerful ground-based telescopes show swirls of warmer air and cooler regions never seen before within Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The images enable scientists to make the first detailed weather map of the inside of the giant storm system. One observation illustrated by this image is the correspondence between a warm core within an otherwise cold storm system and the reddest color of the Great Red Spot.
The image on the top was obtained by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile on May 18, 2008. It was taken in the InfraRed wavelength range of 10.8 microns, which is sensitive to Jupiter's Atmospheric Temperatures in the 300 to 600 millibar pressure range. That pressure range is close to the altitude of the white, red and brown aerosols seen in the visible-light image on the bottom, which was obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on May 15, 2008.
These images show the interaction of three of Jupiter's largest storms -- the Great Red Spot and two smaller storms nicknamed Oval BA and Little Red Spot".MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA14410.jpgJupiter and "Sons": Io and Ganymede87 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA14411.jpgJupiter, from Earth79 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA21974.jpgWhat a View!173 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA22936.jpgThe "Giant" from Earth149 visiteThis Earth-based observation of Jupiter and the South Tropical Disturbance approaching the Great Red Spot was captured on January, 26, 2018 by the Amateur Astronomer Christopher Go, who also processed the image.MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA22948.jpgJupiter Abyss...181 visiteCaption NASA Originale:"NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view of an area within a Jovian jet stream showing a vortex that has an intensely dark center. Nearby, other features display bright, high altitude clouds that have puffed up into the sunlight.
The color-enhanced image was taken at 12:55 a.m. PDT (3:55 a.m. EDT) on May 29, 2019, as the spacecraft performed its 20th science fly-by of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 9.200 miles (approx. 14.805,96 Km) from the Planet's cloud tops, above approximately 52° North Latitude.
Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created and named this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager".MareKromium
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Jupiter-PIA23437.jpgIo's Shadow164 visiteCaption NASA Originale:"Jupiter's volcanically active moon Io casts its shadow on the planet in this dramatic image from NASA's Juno Spacecraft. As with solar eclipses on the Earth, within the dark circle racing across Jupiter's cloud tops one would witness a full solar eclipse as Io passes in front of the Sun.
Such events occur frequently on Jupiter because it is a large planet with many moons. In addition, unlike most other planets in our solar system, Jupiter's axis is not highly tilted relative to its orbit, so the Sun never strays far from Jupiter's equatorial plane (+/- 3°). This means Jupiter's moons regularly cast their shadows on the planet throughout its year.
Juno's close proximity to Jupiter provides an exceptional fish-eye view, showing a small fraction near the planet's Equator. The shadow is about 2.200 miles (such as approx. 3.540,55 Km) wide, approximately the same width as Io, but appears much larger relative to Jupiter.
A little larger than Earth's Moon, Io is perhaps most famous for its many active volcanoes, often caught lofting fountains of ejecta well above its thin (?) Atmosphere.
Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this enhanced-color image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The raw image was taken on Sept. 11, 2019 at 8:41 p.m. PDT (11:41 p.m. EDT) as the Juno spacecraft performed its 22nd close fly-by of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 4.885 miles (approx. 7.861,64 Km) from the cloud tops at a Latitude of 21° North".
Nota: e per chi ha visto il famoso "2010 Odissea Due: l'Anno del Contatto", questa immagine dovrà "ricordare" qualcosa...MareKromium
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