These four NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Jupiter, as seen in visible (violet) and far-ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, show the remarkable spreading of the clouds of smoke and dust thrown into the atmosphere after the impacts of the fragments of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9. These dark regions provide the only information ever obtained on the wind direction and speed in Jupiter's upper atmosphere.
TOP Three impact sites appear as dark smudges lined up along Jupiter's southern hemisphere (from left to right, sites C, A, and E). This pair of images was obtained on 17 July, several hours after the E impact. These 3 impact sites appear strikingly darker in the far-ultraviolet images to the right. This is because the smoke and dust rising from the fireballs absorbs UV light more strongly than violet light, so that the clouds appear both darker and larger in the UV images. Apparently, the fireball and plume threw large amounts of material completely above the atmosphere. This material diffused back down through the atmosphere with the smaller and lighter particles suspended at high altitudes.
BOTTOM Hubble's view of the same hemisphere of Jupiter 12-13 days later shows that the smoke and dust have now been spread mainly in the east/west direction by the prevailing winds at the altitude where the dark material is suspended or "floating" in the atmosphere.
HST shows that winds in Jupiter's upper atmosphere carry the high altitude smoke and dust in different directions than in the lower atmosphere. For example, the UV image shows a fainter cloud near 45 deg. south latitude, which does not appear in the violet image. The fainter cloud may be due to high altitude material which is drifting with the upper atmospheric winds to the north away from the polar regions. However, in the left-hand impact regions the clouds being observed are lower in the atmosphere where there is apparently no such northerly wind.
The violet images show the Great Red Spot, on the eastern (right) limb, one of Jupiter's moons crossing in front of the planet in the northern hemisphere (and its shadow on Jupiter's clouds on the left-hand side in the lower image), and the dark clouds above 3 of the impact sites near 45 deg. south latitude. In addition, Jupiter's polar aurora can also be seen in the far-ultraviolet images near both northern and southern poles.
The images were taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
Credits
J.T. Clarke, G.E. Ballester (University of Michigan), and J.T. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), and NASA| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | Jupiter |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
