Jupiter and its dynamic atmosphere are ready for a close-up once again. New images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Scientists have used telescope data to discover a new high-speed jet stream that has never been captured before. This jet stream sits above Jupiter’s main layer of equatorial clouds, travels twice as fast as a Category 5 hurricane, and can reach distances of more than 3,000 miles. The survey results are The study was published Oct. 19 in the journal natural astronomy.
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Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and its atmosphere has some very visible features, including the infamous Great Red Spot, which is large enough to swallow Earth. The planet is constantly changing, and this gas giant still has mysteries that scientists are trying to unravel. According to NASA, new discoveries in the jet stream are helping decipher how the layers of Jupiter’s famously turbulent atmosphere interact. Currently, JWST is helping scientists further explore the planet and see parts of the lower and deeper layers of Jupiter’s atmosphere, where giant storms and ammonia ice clouds reside.
“This completely surprised us,” says study co-author Ricardo Hueso. said in a statement. “What we always saw as a blurry haze in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appears as sharp features that can be tracked as Jupiter rotates rapidly.” Hueso, a researcher at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, said: I’m an astrophysicist.
The research team analyzed the following data: JWST near-infrared camera The early release science program was designed to take images of Jupiter at 10-hour intervals (one Jupiter day) with four different filters. Each filter detected different types of changes in small features at different altitudes in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The resulting image shows Jupiter’s atmosphere in infrared light. The jet stream is located above the Earth’s equator, or center. There are multiple bright white dots and streaks, probably the tops of a very high-altitude condensed convective storm cloud. Jupiter’s north and south poles are dotted with red-colored auroras that extend to the planet’s highest altitudes.
“Even though various ground-based telescopes, NASA’s Juno and Cassini spacecraft, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed changing weather patterns in the Jupiter system, Webb has already observed changes in Jupiter’s rings, moons, “Offers new discoveries about the atmosphere,” said Imke de Peyter, author and astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. stated in a statement.
The newly discovered jet stream travels at about 320 miles per hour and is located in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere, about 40 miles above the clouds. The research team compared winds observed at high altitudes by JWST with those observed at depth by the Hubble Space Telescope. This made it possible to measure changes in wind speed with altitude and generate wind shear.
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The researchers hope to use additional observations of Jupiter to determine whether the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.
“Jupiter’s equatorial stratosphere has complex but reproducible patterns of wind and temperature above the winds in clouds and the haze measured at these wavelengths,” said study co-author Lester. said Lee Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the university. England, stated in a statement. “If the strength of this new jet is related to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to change significantly over the next two to four years. We will test this theory in the coming years. It’s really exciting to do.”
