Jupiters Clouds from New Horizons
Explanation:
The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of
Jupiter on its way out to Pluto.
Famous for its
Great Red Spot,
Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands,
visible through even modest sized telescopes.
The
featured
image,
horizontally compressed, was taken in 2007 near Jupiter's
terminator and shows the
Jovian giant's wide diversity of
cloud patterns.
On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiter's South Pole.
Here turbulent
whirlpools
and swirls are seen in a dark region,
dubbed a belt, that rings the planet.
Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure,
complete with
complex wave patterns.
The energy that drives these waves surely comes from below.
New Horizons
is the
fastest space probe
ever launched, has
successfully complete its main flyby of Pluto in 2015, and is now heading further
out and on track to flyby
Kuiper belt object
2014 MU69 in 2019.
In the near term, many
space enthusiasts excitedly await
Juno's
arrival at Jupiter next
Monday.
APOD in Poster Format:
PDF,
JPG,
Powerpoint
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
