Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Jupiter's Clouds from New Horizons [ Wow! ]

NASA ^ | October 23, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

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 above 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 now passed the orbits of Saturn and Uranus and is on track to reach Pluto in 2015.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins U. APL, SWRI]

[SunkenCiv]

I hope there's a continuing series of these new Jupiter shots.

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[cripplecreek]

New Horizons is the most exciting solar system mission going on right now.

[bgill]

Stained glass!

[JPG]

New Horizons is hauling a**. After launch it reached the Moons orbit in about 9 hours.

[6SJ7]

Photo gives a great image of the roiling malstrom that could have been another star; if Jupiter had only been 60x heavier!

[cripplecreek]

Could have really been hauling some donkeys if the planets had been lined up right for multiple slingshots.

[LVGuy600]

Government wouldn't fund Voyager 3 and 4 in the 70’s. It would have been Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto.

[null and void]

Photo gives a great image of the roiling maelstrom that could have been another star; if Jupiter had only been 60x heavier

Or if it was compressed by a swarm of black monoliths...

[gargoyle]

...I peeked at this last night, Sorry, don't take me off the list. heeheehee...

[gargoyle]

...I was checking facts last night. Didn't know that an inner core was solid H₂!!!

[DJ MacWoW]

Weary But Not Beaten!

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[ixtl]

Not sure why, but when I saw it, I thought of the song by Train, “Drops of Jupiter.”

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Photo gives a great image of the roiling malstrom that could have been another star; if Jupiter had only been 60x heavier!

Has the math been redone since I took Astronomy 101 back in the sixty's? At that time, professor sagan would say Jupiter needed only 10% more mass before it had enough gravity to start the star sequence.

[SuziQ]

We’re getting so many lovely images of our Universe!

[left that other site]

Wonderful! Thanks, Civ.

[MikeD]

Actually, we don’t know that the core is solid H2. That’s one of the things Juno is supposed to figure out.

MD, who worked on both New Horizons and Juno

[gargoyle]

...Considering that gases (noble) can be liquids at low temp and pressure, it's an interesting theory that they can be called solid or metallic. You say the core.(first layer?) I thought the second layer was the one in question...

...Looks like you're on the edge of all that discovery, thanks for sharing it, and hope you stay in touch...