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Courtesy of Mike Wong, Franck Marchis, Christopher Go & W.M. Keck Observatory
Jupiter seen in three bands of infrared (left), with an overly of 5-micron thermal infrared (center) and on the same night in visible light (small inset at right).
Scientists are getting a detailed look inside the turmoil behind the disappearance — and slow re-emergence — of a prominent stripe of clouds on Jupiter, thanks to some crafty astronomy and help from the planet's icy moon Europa.
Astronomers noticed that the stripe, known as the South Equatorial Belt, disappeared from view last May. Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot is typically found along the edges of this belt. The belt's disappearance was attributed to a deck of white clouds made of ammonia ice that formed when the dry, downwelling winds that normally keep the region clear of high clouds died down. In November, scientists noticed that the belt was re-emerging due to a shift in the cloud cover.
To gain a better understanding of the dynamics behind the disappearance and re-emergence of the belt, scientists created the image above, which shows how the gas giant looks in thermal infrared light, at a wavelength of nearly 5 microns. The thermal IR imagery is shown in bright red and yellow, overlaid on a composite of three shorter near-infrared bands.
The thermal readings reveal how heat from Jupiter's interior is being radiated into space. The three other IR bands, in contrast, capture reflected sunlight. Put them all together and compare them to visible-light images, and scientists get a picture of the thinning, breaking layer of high, bright icy clouds that obscured the belt.
"We see wispy cloud-free regions at 5 microns in the SEB [South Equatorial Belt], but they are much less extensive than the near-infrared dark regions surrounding them," Mike Wong, an astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley, said in an image advisory. "The data show that the change from zonelike to beltlike appearance is a complex process that takes place at different speeds in each layer of Jupiter’s atmosphere."
To make the image, astronomers used the adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii in a particularly clever way. The system effectively cancels out much of the interference of Earth's atmosphere.
Normally, astronomers flash a powerful laser to create an artificial guide star, which they use to compensate for atmospheric distortions at a rate of 2,000 times per second. Jupiter, however, is so bright that its glare overwhelms the laser guide star. So astronomers went looking for something bright and close to Jupiter. On Nov. 30, Europa was positioned just right to serve that purpose, the image advisory explains.
More stories about Jupiter:
- Jupiter lost a cloud stripe, new photos reveal
- Jupiter's missing cloud stripe bounces back big time
- Scientists to probe for life on Jupiter's moons?
- Jupiter took a double wallop as amateurs watched
- Another news flash from Jupiter
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
Fascinating images. Whenever I see pictures of Jupiter I wonder about two things...
First, what could cause the persistence of the great red spot, which has been there and been visible since at least the time of Galileo? It's generally described as a "storm", but there must be something deep within the cloud layer which "anchors" it in place. Could there have been a very large rocky comet or asteroid or even a former moon of Jupiter which collided and still remains basically intact deep down below the clouds but which continues to influence the "weather" patterns on the surface?
According to wikipedia:
But then, what holds it together? Could a large, relatively solid body "float" on the surface of the liquid hydrogen deep within?
Second, why is the horizon of Jupiter such a crisp clear line? At the upper levels, the hydrogen/helium atmosphere must become much less dense than at lower levels, where it's actually a liquid metallic form of hydrogen but at the top there doesn't seem to be any fringe region of semi-transparency, it just stops. Can anyone explain?
you are soooo special MC...thanks for the input. what a great teacher...
MC, where do you get off with that attitude. A guy asks a perfectly reasonable question and you fly off the handle with that garbage comment?? You come across as a jerk and I don't mind letting you know it.
You can not say definitively how the great red spot got started or why with Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere the great red spot is stable.
Mikey Mike, I can not say what causes the persistence of the Great Red Spot but I've always imagined the magnetic field of Jupiter plays a role as the interior of Jupiter is thought to be a liquid metallic hydrogen. I have no education whatsoever to back that up, it's just what I think. And as for the edge of the planet being so crisp, I would guess that is simply do to the planet's size. Maybe and astronomer will pass by and answer that one.
Oops I forgot to mention that if you point a radar at Jupiter you don't see anything. You see it's moons but Jupiter doesn't show up. So, I'm thinking if any moon fell into Jupiter and were still there you'd see it in the radar images.
Thanks Mob, and to MC, I can take the sarcasm, I spew enough of it myself, but just so ya know I am not lacking in scientific education.
As you yourself suggest as an analogous situation, hurricanes are affected by the terrain they pass over. I'm simply trying to imagine what sort of "terrain" deep below the clouds could lead to such a persistent storm effect. Have you got any ideas or just more mockery of my question?
I had a dream and in that dream was revealed the answer. It's caused by a Giant cooking noodles. Really.
Behold! A visitation from the Great Spaghetti Monster! Truly thou art blessed among dreamers of dreams.
:-)
Mike,
You should read some Ben Bova novels, you'd probably like them. His most famous, "Mars", takes you through a hypothetical trip to the first human landing/colonization from a scientific perspective. He has similar books written about separate trips to Jupiter, Venus, and all the other planets. Pretty fun reading.
But no, I don't have an answer to your question in regards to the spot, which I always wondered myself. If the atmosphere is entirely gaseous and the surface of the planet is featureless, how is it holding itself together for so long, in that one spot?
D.Man, exactly!! How is it holding itself together for so long?? There's got to be something else going on, but what?
As to Ben Bova, I never read his stuff back in the late 1970's and early 80's when I was fanatically into sci-fi, but I have read almost all of Heinlein, Clarke, the Asimov foundation series, Niven, and many others. I'll check out Bova next time my reading list gets empty.
That's funny man, I'm plowing through the Foundation series now actually, I'm on "Foundation's Edge".
Yay, Bova wrote "Mars" in 1992, followed it up with "Return to Mars" and "Mars Life". Great reading, and you can still find them in B&N.
The 'Great Red Spot' on Jupiter is not a real mystery: it has been reproduced in computerized mathematical models of chaotic turbulent flow in a rotating sphere of fluid (Jupiter, as far as our measurements can tell, is a fluid throughout, not a solid surface with an atmosphere), where the anticyclonic rotation is driven by the strong planetary coriolis force generated by Jupiter's rapid rotation rate: only ten hours, compared to the earth's rotation rate of 24 hours--even though Jupiter is many times the size of the earth. Therefore the Red Spot will likely continue rotating for as long as Jupiter spins. See "Chaos," by James Gleick, pp 53-56, for a good description of this phenomenon.
Thanks. I'll check that out.
Probably not a solid object like a moon, since jupiter is a gas giant. A magnetic pole might be a possibility. Ours has shifted from Northern Canada to Siberia, but Jupiter's is probably much more stable as it is intense.
test
MC-2075922 There is nothing required to "hold it together" for crying out loud. A hurricane holds itself together perfectly fine until it collides with land or moves over water too cool to support it. Jupiter has THOUSANDS of such vortices and ALL OF THEM are confined in terms of latitude.
Why you imagine an atmospheric vortex would be attracted to some silly floating meteor is a mystery to me, but I'm pretty sure that lack of any scientific education is involved.
Larry reply....What a stupid comment. You 1st say there is nothing "required" to hold it together m(the storm on Jupiter). Then go on to say that a hurricane is proof nothing is required b/c it holds itself together until hit hits dry land & cooler water. Hey idiot, therefore a hurricane "requires" water...cool water at that & it holds itself together.
Not solid like the moon possibly.