Jupiter: the "King" and His Moons

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Inizio > SOLAR SYSTEM > Jupiter: the "King" and His Moons

Jupiter-WST.pngBeautiful Jupiter! - Credits JWST88 visitenessun commentoMareKromium

Jupiter-White_Storm-PIA23445.jpgWhite Storm on Jupiter143 visiteCaption NASA Originale:"This view of Jupiter's Upper Atmosphere from NASA's Juno Spacecraft includes something remarkable: two storms caught in the act of merging.

The two white ovals seen within the orange-colored band left of center are Anticyclonic Storms — that is, storms that rotate counter-clockwise. The larger of the two ovals has been tracked for many years, as it grew in size through mergers with other Anticyclonic white ovals.
JunoCam was fortunate to capture this new merger, which typically takes place over the course of only a few days.
The event interests scientists because the ovals had approached each other months earlier, only to move apart again.

This merger may be the result of perturbations due to the proximity of Oval BA, which is the larger storm just to the North of the two merging, white ovals. Oval BA is the second largest Anticyclonic Vortex in Jupiter's Atmosphere (second only to the famous Great Red Spot). During this pass over Jupiter, Juno gave scientists their best views of Oval BA to date.

Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik created this color-enhanced image using data from the JunoCam camera. The original image was taken on December, 26, 2019, at 10:28 a.m. PST (1:28 p.m. EST) as the Juno Spacecraft performed its 24th close fly-by of the Planet. At the time, the Spacecraft was about 44.900 miles (such as approx. 72.259,54 Km) from the tops of Jupiter's clouds, at a latitude of about 60° South".MareKromium

Jupiter-changes.jpgChangings in the Atmosphere of Jupiter85 visiteStraordinario e, al momento, piuttosto inspiegabile: non credete?2 commentiMareKromium

Jupiter-lor_0035089864_0x630_sci_1.jpgJupiter's Ring56 visiteDescription: Jupiter's Ring - Main Ring vertical structure including ripples
Time: 2007-03-01 21:19:04 UTC
Exposure: 3000 msec
Target: Jupiter
Range: 3,6 MKM

Jupiter-water cloud-GAL-PIA01639_modest.jpgWater clouds on Jupiter66 visiteThis false-color picture of a convective thunderstorm 10.000 Km(6.218 miles) northwest of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was obtained by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on June 26, 1996. The white cloud in the center is a tall, thick cloud about 1.000 Km (620 miles) across, standing 25 Km (15 miles) higher than most of the surrounding clouds. Its base extends off to the left and appears red in this representation. This red color indicates that the cloud base is very deep in the atmosphere, about 50 Km (30 miles) below the surrounding clouds. Most of the wisps and features in Jupiter's clouds are thick and thin ammonia clouds, forming at a pressure just less than Earth's sea level pressure. On Jupiter, water is the only substance to form a cloud at a depth where the pressure is about 5 times the Earth's sea level pressure. The red base of this thunderstorm is so deep that it can only be a water cloud. In 1979 NASA's Voyager spacecraft saw convective clouds of this type near the Great Red Spot. They erupted like this roughly once every 10 days and lasted a few days each. But Voyager's cameras could not allow the determination of the storms' altitude. It is thought that this storm is analogous to an Earth thunderstorm, with the cloud's high, bright, white portion comparable to the familiar anvil cloud on Earth. Whether any rain or snow is falling below this cloud is unknown, but there are indications that similar storms on Jupiter have lightning in them.

Jupiter.jpgA "Hole" in the King!107 visiteNaturalmente non è un "buco": solo l'ambra di Ganymede, che oscura una piccola Regione del Gigante Gassoso. Un raffronto fra questa immagine e quella che propone l'ombra di Io (PIA23437) potrebbe risultare interessante...MareKromium

JupiterSpots-HST.jpgThe "Eyes" of Jupiter84 visiteFor about 300 years Jupiter's "Banded" Atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as "The Great Red Spot". In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The spots extend above the surrounding clouds and their red color may be due to deeper material dredged up by the storms and exposed to ultraviolet light, but the exact chemical process is still unknown. For scale, the Great Red Spot has almost twice the diameter of planet Earth, making both new spots less than one Earth-diameter across. The newest red spot is on the far left (West), along the same band of clouds as the Great Red Spot and is drifting toward it. If the motion continues, the new spot will encounter the much larger storm system in August. Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas Giant Planet is getting warmer near the Equator.MareKromium

JupiterSystem-050107_09.jpgThe "Galilean Family" of Jupiter86 visiteThis montage shows the best views of Jupiter's four large and diverse "Galilean" satellites as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of Jupiter in late February 2007. The four moons are, from left to right: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The images have been scaled to represent the true relative sizes of the four moons and are arranged in their order from Jupiter.

Io, 3,640 kilometers (2,260 miles) in diameter, was imaged at 03:50 Universal Time on February 28 from a range of 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles). The original image scale was 13 kilometers per pixel, and the image is centered at Io coordinates 6 degrees south, 22 degrees west. Io is notable for its active volcanism, which New Horizons has studied extensively.

Europa, 3,120 kilometers (1,938 miles) in diameter, was imaged at 01:28 Universal Time on February 28 from a range of 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles). The original image scale was 15 kilometers per pixel, and the image is centered at Europa coordinates 6 degrees south, 347 degrees west. Europa's smooth, icy surface likely conceals an ocean of liquid water. New Horizons obtained data on Europa’s surface composition and imaged subtle surface features, and analysis of these data may provide new information about the ocean and the icy shell that covers it.

New Horizons spied Ganymede, 5,262 kilometers (3,268 miles) in diameter, at 10:01 Universal Time on February 27 from 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) away. The original scale was 17 kilometers per pixel, and the image is centered at Ganymede coordinates 6 degrees south, 38 degrees west. Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, has a dirty ice surface cut by fractures and peppered by impact craters. New Horizons’ infrared observations may provide insight into the composition of the moon’s surface and interior.

Callisto, 4,820 kilometers (2,995 miles) in diameter, was imaged at 03:50 Universal Time on February 28 from a range of 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles). The original image scale was 21 kilometers per pixel, and the image is centered at Callisto coordinates 4 degrees south, 356 degrees west. Scientists are using the infrared spectra New Horizons gathered of Callisto’s ancient, cratered surface to calibrate spectral analysis techniques that will help them to understand the surfaces of Pluto and its moon Charon when New Horizons passes them in 2015.
MareKromium

Jupiter_Io-PIA10102.jpgLike Father and Son... (approx. true colors; credits: NASA)78 visiteCaption NASA:"This is a montage of New Horizons images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken during the Spacecraft's Jupiter flyby in early 2007. The Jupiter image is an infrared color composite taken by the spacecraft's near-infrared imaging spectrometer, the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) at 1:40 UT on Feb. 28, 2007. The infrared wavelengths used (red: 1.59 µm, green: 1.94 µm, blue: 1.85 µm) highlight variations in the altitude of the Jovian cloud tops, with blue denoting high-altitude clouds and hazes, and red indicating deeper clouds. The prominent bluish-white oval is the Great Red Spot. The observation was made at a solar phase angle of 75° but has been projected onto a crescent to remove distortion caused by Jupiter's rotation during the scan.
The Io image, taken at 00:25 UT on March 1st 2007, is an approx. true-color composite taken by the panchromatic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), with color information provided by the 0.5 µm ("blue") and 0.9 µm ("methane") channelsof the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The image shows a major eruption in progress on Io's night side, at the northern volcano Tvashtar. Incandescent lava glows red beneath a 330-kilometer high volcanic plume, whose uppermost portions are illuminated by sunlight. The plume appears blue due to scattering of light by small particles in the plume ".MareKromium

Jupiter_JUNO.gifUp, Down, like a Yo-Yo!92 visitenessun commentoMareKromium

Jupiter_Storm.jpgThe Dark S.E.B. of Jupiter is back!82 visiteDalla Rubrica "NASA - Picture of the Day" del giorno 29 Npvembre 2010:"Why are planet-circling clouds disappearing and reappearing on Jupiter?
Although the ultimate cause remains unknown, planetary meteorologists are beginning to better understand what is happening. Earlier this year, unexpectedly, Jupiter's Dark Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB) disappeared. The changes were first noted by amateurs dedicated to watching Jupiter full time. The South Equatorial Band has been seen to change colors before, although the change has never been recorded in such detail. Detailed professional observations revealed that high-flying light-colored Ammonia-based clouds formed over the planet-circling Dark Belt. Now those Light Clouds are dissipating, again unveiling the lower Dark Clouds.

Pictured above two weeks ago, far InfraRed images - depicted in false-color red - show a powerful storm system active above the returning Dark Belt. Continued observations of Jupiter's current cloud opera, and our understanding of it, is sure to continue".MareKromium

Jupiter_from_New_Horizons-092606_1_hr.jpgJupiter, from New Horizons69 visiteBlazing along its path to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons has come within hailing distance of Jupiter. The first picture of the Giant Planet from the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken Sept. 4, 2006, is a tantalizing promise of what's to come when New Horizons flies through the Jupiter system early next year.
New Horizons was still 291 MKM (nearly 181 MMs) away from Jupiter when LORRI took the photo.
As New Horizons comes much closer, next January and February 2007, LORRI will take more-detailed images.

"These first LORRI images of Jupiter are awe-inspiring," says New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where LORRI was designed and built. "New Horizons is speeding toward this majestic planet at 45,000 miles per hour, right on target for a close encounter on February 28 of next year. LORRI's resolution at Jupiter will be 125 times better than now, and we're really looking forward to getting the most detailed views of the Jovian system since Cassini's flyby in late 2000 and Galileo's final images in 2003."

Now on the outskirts of the asteroid belt, LORRI snapped this image during a test sequence to help prepare for the Jupiter encounter observations. It was taken close to solar opposition, meaning that the Sun was almost directly behind the camera when it spied Jupiter. This makes Jupiter appear blindingly bright, about 40 times brighter than Pluto will be for LORRI's primary observations when New Horizons encounters the Pluto system in 2015. To avoid saturation, the camera's exposure time was kept to 6 milliseconds. This image was, in part, a test to see how well LORRI would operate with such a short exposure time.

"LORRI's first Jupiter image is all we could have expected," says LORRI Principal Investigator Andy Cheng, of APL. "We see belts, zones and large storms in Jupiter's atmosphere. We see the Jovian moons Io and Europa, as well as the shadows they cast on Jupiter. It is most gratifying to detect these moons against the glare from Jupiter."

LORRI wasn't the only New Horizons instrument peeking at Jupiter on Sept. 4; the Ralph imager also performed some important calibrations. "We rapidly scanned Ralph's Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera [MVIC] across Jupiter to test a technique we plan to employ near closest approach next February. We also observed Jupiter in the infrared using Ralph's Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array [LEISA]," says Ralph Program Manager Cathy Olkin, of the Southwest Research Institute. "Everything worked great."

New Horizons won't observe Jupiter again until early January 2007, when periodic monitoring will begin, followed by intensive observations at the end of February. The spacecraft will also continue to look at the Jovian magnetosphere for several months after closest approach.

"New Horizons is headed to a spectacular science encounter with the Jupiter system early next year," says mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute. "The first LORRI images of Jupiter just whet our appetite for the observations to come."

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