Two new photos, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, show Jupiter with its turbulent atmosphere and giant storms. One of the images also features Europa, one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons.
This image of Jupiter was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on August 25, 2020, when the planet was 653 million km (406 million miles) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.
A bright, white, stretched-out storm moving at 560 km per hour (348 mph) appeared at Jupiter’s mid-northern latitudes on August 18, 2020.
While it’s common for storms to pop up in this region, often several at once, this particular disturbance appears to have more structure behind it than observed in previous storms. Trailing behind the plume are small, counterclockwise dark clumps also not witnessed in the past.
“This may be the beginning of a longer-lasting northern hemisphere spot, perhaps to rival the legendary Great Red Spot that dominates the southern hemisphere,” said astronomers from the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.
Hubble shows that the Great Red Spot, rolling counterclockwise in the planet’s southern hemisphere, is ploughing into the clouds ahead of it, forming a cascade of white and beige ribbons.
The huge storm system is currently an exceptionally rich red color, with its core and outermost band appearing deeper red.
It now measures about 15,800 km (9,818 miles) across, and is still shrinking, as noted in telescopic observations dating back to 1930, but its rate of shrinkage appears to have slowed.
A multiwavelength observation in ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared light of Jupiter obtained by Hubble on August 25, 2020 is giving astronomers an entirely new view of the giant planet. Hubble’s near-infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet’s haze and particles. This complements Hubble’s visible-light pictures that show the ever-changing cloud patterns. In this photo, the parts of Jupiter’s atmosphere that are at higher altitude, especially over the poles, look red as a result of atmospheric particles absorbing ultraviolet light. Conversely, the blue-hued areas represent the ultraviolet light being reflected off the planet. A new storm at upper left, which erupted on August 18, 2020, is grabbing the attention of scientists in this multiwavelength view. The ‘clumps’ trailing the white plume appear to be absorbing ultraviolet light, similar to the center of the Great Red Spot, and Red Spot Jr. directly below it. This provides the astronomers with more evidence that this storm may last longer on Jupiter than most storms. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.
The astronomers are noticing that another feature has changed: Oval BA, nicknamed as Red Spot Jr., which appears just below the Great Red Spot in the new images.
For the past few years, Oval BA has been fading in color to its original shade of white after appearing red in 2006.
However, now the core of this storm appears to be darkening to a reddish hue. This could hint that Red Spot Jr. is on its way to reverting to a color more similar to that of its cousin.
The images also show that Jupiter is clearing out its higher-altitude white clouds, especially along the planet’s equator, which is enveloped in an orangish hydrocarbon smog.
In one of the two images, the icy moon Europa is visible to the left of Jupiter.
Hubble also captured a new multiwavelength observation in ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared light of Jupiter, which is giving astronomers an entirely new view of the giant planet.
The telescope’s near infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet’s haze and particles.
This complements Hubble’s visible-light picture that shows the ever-changing cloud patterns.
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This article is based on press-releases provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency.
