| Piú votate - Jupiter: the "King" and His Moons |
Ganymede-PIA02252.jpgGanymede in HR (Voyager 1)55 visiteThis view of Ganymede was taken on the afternoon of March 5, 1979, from a range of about 267.000 Km (roughly 167.000 miles). A bright rayed impact crater is prominent on the left side of the frame. The ejecta material extends for a thousand kilometers. The rays are on top and therefore are younger than the brighter ridged and grooved terrain crossing the picture. These features may be breaks in the surface caused by faulting. Many older craters are visible that have lost their rays.
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Europa-Lineae-Agenor_Linea-HR-PIA01646.jpgThe "Agenor Linea" on Europa (detail mgnf + HR)61 visiteAgenor Linea is an unusual feature on Jupiter's icy moon Europa since it is brighter than its surroundings while most of Europa's ridges and bands are relatively dark. During the Galileo spacecraft's 17th orbit of Jupiter, high resolution images were obtained of Agenor Linea near Europa's day/night boundary so as to emphasize fine surface details. This mosaic shows high resolution images embedded in slightly lower resolution images which were also acquired during the 17th orbit. The Galileo images show that Agenoris not a ridge, but is relatively flat. Its interior consists of several long bands, just one of which is the very bright feature known as Agenor. Each long band shows fine striations along its length. A few very small craters pockmark Agenor Linea and its surroundings. Agenor is cut by some narrow fractures, and by some small subcircular features called lenticulae. Rough chaotic terrain is visible at the top and bottom of this photo, and appears to be "eating away" at the edges of Agenor. Though previously it was suspected that Agenor Linea might be one of the youngest features on Europa, this new view shows that it is probably not.
North is to the upper right of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the east. The image, centered at 44 degrees south latitude and 219 degrees west longitude, covers an area approximately 130 by 95 kilometers (80 by 60 miles). The highest resolution images were obtained at a resolution of about 50 meters (165 feet) per picture element and are shown here in context at about 220 meters per picture element. The images were taken on September 26th, 1998 at ranges as close as 5000 kilometers (3100 miles) by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
(5 voti)
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Europa-Craters-Pwyll_Crater-PIA01211.jpgPwyll Crater on Europa (Extremely Enhanced Natural Colors; credits: NASA/JPL)55 visiteThis enhanced color image of the region surrounding the young impact crater Pwyll on Jupiter's moon Europa was produced by combining low resolution color data with a higher resolution mosaic of images obtained on December 19, 1996 by the Solid State Imaging (CCD) system aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft. This region is on the trailing hemisphere of the satellite, centered at 11 degrees South and 276 degrees West, and is about 1240 kilometers across. North is toward the top of the image, and the sun illuminates the surface from the east.
The 26 kilometer diameter impact crater Pwyll, just below the center of the image, is thought to be one of the youngest features on the surface of Europa. The diameter of the central dark spot, ejecta blasted from beneath Europa's surface, is approximately 40 kilometers, and bright white rays extend for over a thousand kilometers in all directions from the impact site. These rays cross over many different terrain types, indicating that they are younger than anything they cross. Their bright white color may indicate that they are composed of fresh, fine water ice particles, as opposed to the blue and brown tints of older materials elsewhere in the image.
Also visible in this image are a number of the dark lineaments which are called "triple bands" because they have a bright central stripe surrounded by darker material. Scientists can use the order in which these bands cross each other to determine their relative ages, as they attempt to reconstruct the geologic history of Europa.
(5 voti)
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Europa-Chaotic_Terrain-Conamara_Chaos-PIA01181.jpgConamara Chaos Region on Europa (HR)72 visiteThis view of the Conamara Chaos region on Jupiter's moon Europa shows cliffs along the edges of high-standing ice plates. The washboard texture of the older terrain has been broken into plates which are separated by material with a jumbled texture. The cliffs themselves are rough and broadly scalloped, and smooth debris shed from the cliff faces is piled along the base. For scale, the height of the cliffs and size of the scalloped indentations are comparable to the famous cliff face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
This image was taken on December 16, 1997 at a range of 900 Km (540 miles) by the Solid State Imaging System Camera on Galileo spacecraft. North is to the top right of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the east. This image, centered at approx. 8° North Latitude and 273° West Longitude, covers an area approx. 1,5 by 4 Km (about 0,9 by 2,4 miles). The resolution is 9 mt (30 feet) per picture element.
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IO 5.jpgZal Patera, Io, in color73 visiteThe Zal Patera region of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is shown in this combination of high-resolution black and white images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on November 25, 1999 and lower resolution color images taken by Galileo on July 3, 1999. By combining both types of images, Galileo scientists can better understand the relationships between the different surface materials and the underlying geologic structures. For example, in the center toward the top of the picture, the edge of the caldera, or volcanic crater, is marked by the black flows, and it coincides with the edge of a plateau. Also, the red material(just above and to the right of the center of the image) is typically associated with regions where lava is erupting onto the surface. Here the red material follows the base of a mountain, which may indicate that sulfurous gases are escaping along a fault associated with the formation of the mountain.
Scientists can use the lengths of the shadows cast to estimate the height of the mountains. They estimate that the northernmost plateau, which bounds the western edge of Zal Patera, rises up to approximately 2 kilometers (6,600 feet) high. The mountain to the south of the caldera has peaks up to approximately 4.6 kilometers (15,000 feet) high, while the small peak at the bottom of the picture is approximately 4.2 kilometers (14,000 feet) high.
North is to the top of the image, which is centered at 33.7 degrees north latitude and 81.9 degrees west longitude. The higher resolution images have a sharpness of about 260 meters (or yards) per picture element, and they are illuminated from the left. These images were taken on November 25, 1999 at a range of 26,000 kilometers (16,000 miles). The color images are illuminated from almost directly behind the Galileo spacecraft. The resolution of the color images is 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) per picture element. They were taken on July 3, 1999 at a distance of about 130,000 kilometers (81,000 miles).
(5 voti)
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IO 8.jpgIo from 8,3 MKM!74 visiteThis photo of Jupiter's satellite Io was taken by Voyager 1 about 4:30 p.m. (PST) March 2, 1979. The spacecraft was about 5 million miles (8.3 million kilometers away). Voyager 1 was mapping Jupiter with the cameras and infrared instrument at the time the picture was taken. The hemisphere seen here is the one that always faces away from Jupiter. This photo shows details on Io never before seen. The smallest features are about 38 miles (70 kilometers) across. Near the center and slightly to the right can be seen several round features with dark centers and bright rims. They may be the first craters ever observed on Io. At this resolution scientists still cannot tell much about the origin of the features, which could be impact craters or of internal (volcanic) origin. No ray or ejecta patterns are obvious at this resolution.
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JUPITER from 84,1 MKM.jpgJupiter from 84,1 MKM57 visitenessun commento
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Jupiter_JUNO.gifUp, Down, like a Yo-Yo!94 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
(4 voti)
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Jupiter-WST.pngBeautiful Jupiter! - Credits JWST92 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
(4 voti)
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Europa_and_Jupiter.jpgI am speechless...170 visiteC'è un luogo del Sistema Solare dove pensiamo di trovare forme di vita extraterrestri. Ha un nome molto familiare ed è uno dei satelliti di Giove: si chiama Europa. Questo mondo ha delle caratteristiche geologiche che lo rendono estremamente interessante da decenni. Fuori è coperto da una spessa crosta ghiacciata, ma dentro contiene un enorme oceano, proprio come quelli che abbiamo qui sulla Terra (vedi Nota 1).
La sua caratteristica unica suggerisce che l'acqua oceanica può "in qualche modo muoversi attraverso il guscio e raggiungere la superficie", ha affermato Alyssa Rhoden, scienziato del Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Se l'affermazione è, in effetti, vera, "i nutrienti e l'energia possono circolare tra l'oceano, il guscio di ghiaccio e la superficie, e questo può essere benefico per la vita".
L'imminente Europa Clipper della NASA è una missione rivoluzionaria per capire di più sul corpo planetario e sul suo potenziale di abitabilità. Verrà lanciato nel 2024 e arriverà nel 2030.
NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper is a groundbreaking mission to learn more about the planetary body and its potential for habitability. It will launch in 2024 and arrive in 2030.
Rhoden said, "I started researching Europa 22 years ago and have always had the same images to work with. So, I'd say I'm EXTREMELY excited about the new datasets that Clipper will provide. As for habitability, there are probably many ways it will inform us about it, but what I'm most interested in seeing is evidence of liquid water within the ice shell."
When asked what life might be found on Europa, Rhoden quipped, "Space whales, obviously." (See Note 2.)
Note 1: This information is over 28 years old;
Note 2: If this lady is a "scientist," then it's really over...MareKromium
(4 voti)
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JUPITER-Lightnings.jpgJupiter's Lightnings96 visiteIn the data from Juno’s first eight passes by the planet, the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer Instrument (MWR) detected 377 Jovian lightning discharges. Scientists saw that lightning on Jupiter can be as frequent as it is on Earth.MareKromium
(4 voti)
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Jupiter-PIA23606.jpgThe "Eye" of Jupiter162 visiteCaption NASA Originale:"Swirling in Jupiter's Atmosphere for hundreds of years, the Great Red Spot is captured in this pair of close-up images from Juno's JunoCam Camera. The giant storm churns through Jupiter's Atmosphere, creating the turbulent flows to its West. On the West-side of the Great Red Spot itself, a sliver of red material is being pulled off the periphery. This is a recent, frequent, phenomenon first observed in ground-based data in 2017.
Two images have been mosaicked together by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill to create this enhanced color composite. When they were taken on Feb. 12, 2019 at 10:24 a.m. PDT (1:24 p.m. EDT) and 10:29 a.m. PDT (1:29 p.m. EDT), Juno was about 43.500 miles (such as about 70.006,464 Km) above Jupiter's cloud tops. Features as small as 31 miles (approx. 49,889 Km) can be resolved in the images, allowing us to see structure in the interior of the Great Red Spot, as well as the fine texture of the white clouds in the South Tropical Zone below".MareKromium
(4 voti)
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