
Detailed analysis of two continent-sized storms that erupted in Jupiter's atmosphere in March 2007 shows that Jupiter's internal heat plays a significant role in generating atmospheric disturbances. Understanding this outbreak could be the key to unlock the mysteries buried in the deep Jovian atmosphere, say astronomers.
Understanding these phenomena is important for Earth's meteorology where storms are present everywhere and jet streams dominate the atmospheric circulation. Jupiter is a natural laboratory where atmospheric scientists study the nature and interplay of the intense jets and severe atmospheric phenomena.
An international team coordinated by Agustin Sánchez-Lavega from the Universidad del País Vasco in Spain presents its findings about this event in the January 24 issue of the journal Nature.
The team monitored the new eruption of cloud activity and its evolution with an unprecedented resolution using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, and telescopes in the Canary Islands (Spain). A network of smaller telescopes around the world also supported these observations.
According to the analysis, the bright plumes were storm systems triggered in Jupiter's deep water clouds that moved upward in the atmosphere vigorously and injected a fresh mixture of ammonia ice and water about 20 miles (30 kilometers) above the visible clouds. The storms moved in the peak of a jet stream in Jupiter's atmosphere at 375 miles per hour (600 kilometers per hour). Models of the disturbance indicate that the jet stream extends deep in the buried atmosphere of Jupiter, more than 60 miles (approximately100 kilometers) below the cloud tops where most sunlight is absorbed.
Credits
NASA, ESA, IRTF, and A. Sánchez-Lavega and R. Hueso (Universidad del País Vasco, Spain )About The Object | |
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Object Name | Jupiter |
Object Description | Planet |
R.A. Position | The semi-major axis of Jupiter's orbit about the Sun is 5.2 Astronomical Units (778 million km or 483 million miles). |
Distance | The planet has a diameter of roughly 88,789 miles (142,984 km) at the equator. |
About The Data | |
Data Description | IRTF Data (left): Other data used in this composite image were taken on April 5, 2007 with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (a 3.0 meter telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii). The image was taken through a medium-band filter centered at 2.3 microns; six exposures of 1 second each were taken with the NSFCam2 instrument. HST Data (right): HST Proposal: I. de Pater, M. Wong, P. Marcus, and X. Asay-Davis (University of California, Berkeley). |
Instrument | IRTF>NSFCam2 (left) and HST>WFPC2 (right) |
Exposure Dates | April 5, 2007 (left) and May 11, 2007 (right) |
Filters | NSFCam2 (left): 2.3 microns WFPC2 (right): 410 nm, 502 nm, and 673 nm |
About The Image | |
Color Info | WFPC2 (right): Blue: F410 nm Green: F502 nm Red: F673 nm |
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. |