The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the Solar System’s largest planet on April 3, 2017 — just days before it is in opposition on April 7. This new image of Jupiter is part of Hubble’s Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.
This Hubble image of Jupiter was taken when it was comparatively close to Earth, at a distance of 415 million miles. Hubble reveals the intricate, detailed beauty of Jupiter’s clouds as arranged into bands of different latitudes, known as tropical regions. These bands are produced by air flowing in different directions at various latitudes. Lighter colored areas, called zones, are high-pressure where the atmosphere rises. Darker low-pressure regions where air falls are called belts. The planet’s trademark, the Great Red Spot, is a long-lived storm roughly the diameter of Earth. Much smaller storms appear as white or brown-colored ovals. Such storms can last as little as a few hours or stretch on for centuries. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, Goddard Space Flight Center.
Today Jupiter will come into opposition, the point at which the planet is located directly opposite the Sun in the sky.
This means that the Sun, Earth and Jupiter line up, with our planet sitting in between the Sun and the gas giant.
Opposition also marks the planet’s closest approach to Earth — about 415 million miles (670 million km) — so that Jupiter appears brighter in the night sky than at any other time in the year.
On April 3, Hubble took advantage of this favorable alignment and turned its sharp eye towards Jupiter to add to the collection of images of the giant planet.
Hubble observed Jupiter using its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which allows observations in UV, IR and visible light.
The final image shows a sharp view of the gas giant and reveals a wealth of features in its dense atmosphere.
The surface of Jupiter is divided into several distinct, colorful bands, running parallel to the equator.
These bands are created by differences in the opacity of the clouds which have varying quantities of frozen ammonia in them; the lighter bands have higher concentrations than the darker bands.
The differing concentrations are kept separate by fast winds which can reach speeds of up to 404 mph (650 km per hour).
The most recognizable feature on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, the huge anticyclonic storm that has roiled the giant planet for up to 300 years.
As with the last images of Jupiter taken by Hubble and telescopes on the ground, this Hubble image confirms that the long-lived storm continues to shrink.
The reason for this is still unknown. So Hubble will continue to observe Jupiter in the hope that astronomers will solve this stormy riddle.
Next to the famous Great Red Spot a much smaller storm can be seen at farther southern latitudes.
Because of its similar appearance but much smaller size it was dubbed ‘Red Spot Junior.’
