Posted on 03/07/2003 7:14:20 PM PST by blam
Nasa releases new images of Jupiter
Images of Jupiter captured by a Nasa craft on its way to Saturn have been made public for the first time.
The pictures, beamed to Earth from the Cassini spacecraft, are being analysed by scientists at the Astronomy Unit at Queen Mary, University of London.
As well as providing new views of Jupiter and its moons, they have turned at least one scientific assumption about the giant planet upside down.
The new evidence, published in the journal Science, revises long held beliefs about Jupiter's dark belts and lighter zones.
It had long been thought that the pale regions were areas of rising atmosphere while air in the dark bands was descending.
But Cassini's images suggest that the opposite is true - air is rising in the belts and sinking in the zones.
Cassini was launched in October 1997 on a mission to Saturn, which it should reach in July next year.
It carries the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which is due to parachute down into the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
The spacecraft made a fly-by of Jupiter at a distance of six million miles to pick up speed by getting a gravitational kick from the planet. Scientists took the opportunity to obtain thousands of images.
The pictures clearly show Jupiter's swirling cloud bands and the planet's famous Red Spot - thought to be a giant storm system. Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, can also be seen, looking like a tiny pea.
Story filed: 16:08 Friday 7th March 2003
Seven more moons have been discovered circling Jupiter, a discovery that astronomers hope could provide clues of the planet's origin.
The discovery was made using telescopes in Hawaii and has been announced by the International Astronomical Union.
It brings to 47 the number of satellites known to orbit the solar system's largest planet.
The finding was made by astronomer David Jewitt and graduate student Scott Sheppard of the University of Hawaii and Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University.
"It will tell us, hopefully, something about the way that Jupiter was formed."
"The reason we're doing this is to find out how the satellites were captured," Mr Jewitt said.
Five of the seven newly discovered moons follow retrograde orbits, with their paths going in the opposite direction of Jupiter's spin. Such an orbit - found in the majority of moons discovered by the UH team - indicates the moons were formed in another place and captured by Jupiter's orbit.
Astronomers have not yet determined how large the newly discovered moons are, but believe they are about 1.25 to 2.5 miles in diameter.
Jupiter has more moons than any other planet. The largest were discovered by Galileo in 1610 and are several thousand miles in diameter.
The discoveries were made using the world's two largest digital cameras at the Subaru and Canada-France-Hawaii telescopes.
© Associated Press
Story filed: 08:22 Thursday 6th March 2003
I think these pictures may have been taken in my attic.
And just think: It's all the result of random chance!
Blam's dog: "Satellites? They look like balls to me. Want me to retrieve 'em? Yeah, huh? I'll go, I'll go. . . just say the word!"
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Yup. See the shadow on the surface from the moon in picture #2, they have a lot more eclipses than we do.
Is this the one that has plutonium on it?
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