Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 September 14 
Posted on 09/14/2016 4:25:55 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 September 14
Explanation: A wide, looping orbit brought Juno close to Jupiter on August 27. As the spacecraft swung around the giant planet's poles JunoCam acquired these premier direct polar views, a change from the usual nearly equatorial perspective of outbound spacecraft and the telescopes of planet Earth. The sunlit side of Jupiter's north polar region (left) was imaged about 125,000 kilometers from the cloud tops, two hours before Juno's closest approach. An hour after close approach the south polar region was captured from 94,500 kilometers away. Strikingly different from the alternating light-colored zones and darker belts girdling more familiar equatorial regions, the polar region clouds appear more convoluted and mottled by many clockwise and counterclockwise rotating storm systems. Another 35 close orbital flybys are planned during the Juno mission.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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But! Is the photo real space (with north vertical as the planets rotate), or photo-space with the north and south inverted as the telescope displays the view?
Not bad considering Juno isn’t designed to capture visual images.
Jupiter...the failed star
...
Without Jupiter we probably wouldn’t be here, so it’s been very valuable.
Why is that? It’s gravity has prevented the Sun from pulling us (along w/Merc, Ven, Mars) into it?
If that’s what you mean, I never thought about that but it makes sense.
Very true. I wonder how many comet/asteroid hits J has taken in our name?
Wow! What is the photographers name that took that picture. He’s brave....
Thanks for the ping!
I don’t buy the Jupiter as the savior of earth from objects from the Kuiper belt and Ort cloud.
And object barreling in from outside and being affected by Jupiter could just as easily be directed TOWARDS earth by the gravitational affects of the gas giant than away from it.
Earth travels it’s one year orbit around the sun and can be directly opposite the sun from Jupiter. Directly between the sun and Jupiter .......or any combination that the orbits of Earth and Jupiter can scribe. Also There are huge areas of space that are not affected by Jupiter’s gravitational field.
Perhaps the Chixalub object was traveling on a nice safe course through the solar system and back out when Jupiter yanked on it enough to direct it towards the earth
I know that Jupiter as earth’s savior is considered sacrosanct in the astronomical community, if you look at the big picture it just doesn’t hold water
No, it's because Jupiter, with its strong gravitational field, over a long period of time, has sucked in many passing comets and asteroids that might otherwise have crashed into Earth.
I’ve often described it as a “Mass of Gas”
Does Jupiter emits gases like Uranus?
Lol! (sorry)
emits = emit
Okay, thanks.
And redirected them.......to who knows where. See 11.
It's hard to say without knowing and understanding the precise physics and math of the situation that it could "just as easily" do one thing as the other. But I'm sure you're right that it doesn't *only* divert passing comets and asteroids. That it could have potentially helped steered some into Earth. My guess, though, is that many more were diverted away, as there are many more places where the Earth isn't than where it is at any given time, although Earth's own gravitational field would of course contribute to the impact probabilities.
...also, Jupiter would of course absorb many of the impacts itself, as opposed to steering them away or into the Earth.
many = some
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