This new portrait of Jupiter was produced from observations made using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Credits: NASA/ESA/Goddard/UCBerkeley/JPL-Caltech/STScI. Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter – the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system’s outer planets.
Collecting these yearly images – essentially the planetary version of
annual school picture days for children – will help current and future
scientists see how these giant worlds change over time. The observations
are designed to capture a broad range of features, including winds,
clouds, storms and atmospheric chemistry.
Already, the Jupiter images have revealed a rare wave just north of
the planet’s equator and a unique filamentary feature in the core of the
Great Red Spot not seen previously.
“Every time we look at Jupiter, we get tantalizing hints that
something really exciting is going on,” said Amy Simon, a planetary
scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“This time is no exception.”
Simon and her colleagues produced two global maps of Jupiter from
observations made using Hubble’s high-performance Wide Field Camera 3.
The two maps represent nearly back-to-back rotations of the planet,
making it possible to determine the speeds of Jupiter’s winds. The
findings are described in an Astrophysical Journal paper, available online.
The new images confirm that the Great Red Spot continues to shrink
and become more circular, as it has been doing for years. The long axis
of this characteristic storm is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) shorter
now than it was in 2014. Recently, the storm had been shrinking at a
faster-than-usual rate, but the latest change is consistent with the
long-term trend.
The Great Red Spot remains more orange than red these days, and its
core, which typically has more intense color, is less distinct than it
used to be. An unusual wispy filament is seen, spanning almost the
entire width of the vortex. This filamentary streamer rotates and twists
throughout the 10-hour span of the Great Red Spot image sequence,
getting distorted by winds blowing at 330 miles per hour (150 meters per
second) or even greater speeds.
In Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt, the researchers found an elusive
wave that had been spotted on the planet only once before, decades
earlier, by Voyager 2. In those images, the wave is barely visible, and
nothing like it was seen again, until the current wave was found
traveling at about 16 degrees north latitude, in a region dotted with
cyclones and anticyclones. Similar waves – called baroclinic waves –
sometimes appear in Earth’s atmosphere where cyclones are forming.
In Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt, scientists spotted a rare wave that had been seen there only once before. It is similar to a wave that sometimes occurs in Earth’s atmosphere when cyclones are forming. This false-color close-up of Jupiter shows cyclones (arrows) and the wave (vertical lines).
Credits: NASA/ESA/Goddard/UCBerkeley/JPL-Caltech/STScI
“Until now, we thought the wave seen by Voyager 2 might have been a
fluke,” said co-author Glenn Orton of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California. “As it turns out, it’s just rare!”
The wave may originate in a clear layer beneath the clouds, only
becoming visible when it propagates up into the cloud deck, according to
the researchers. That idea is supported by the spacing between the wave
crests.
In addition to Jupiter, the researchers have observed Neptune and
Uranus, and maps of those planets also will be placed in the public
archive. Saturn will be added to the series later. Hubble will dedicate
time each year to this special set of observations, called the Outer
Planet Atmospheres Legacy program.
The movement of Jupiter’s clouds can be seen by
comparing the first map to the second one. Zooming in on the Great Red
Spot at blue (left) and red (right) wavelengths reveals a unique
filamentary feature not previously seen. Credits: NASA/ESA/Goddard/UCBerkeley/JPL-Caltech/STScI
“The long-term value of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program
is really exciting,” said co-author Michael H. Wong of the University of
California, Berkeley. “The collection of maps that we will build up
over time will not only help scientists understand the atmospheres of
our giant planets, but also the atmospheres of planets being discovered
around other stars, and Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, too.”
Please direct inquiries for the University of California, Berkeley, to Robert Sanders at rlsanders@berkeley.edu.
To access the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program images and data, visit: https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/opal/
For images and more information about Hubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble and http://hubblesite.org/news/2015/37
Related multimedia is available at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?12021
Nancy Neal-Jones/Elizabeth Zubritsky
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039/301-614-5438
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov/elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore
410-338-4514
villard@stsci.edu
Preston Dyches
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-7013
preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov
