Category:Kids To Space - JUPITER

From The Space Library


This mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera on board NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 6.2 million miles. It is the most detailed global portrait of Jupiter ever produced; the smallest visible features are approximately 37 miles across. The mosaic is composed of 27 images: nine images were required to cover the entire planet in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Everything visible on the planet is a cloud. The parallel light and dark bands, the white ovals, and the large Great Red Spot (lower center) persist over many years despite the intense turbulence visible in the atmosphere. The most energetic features are the small, bright clouds to the left of the Great Red Spot and in similar locations in the northern half of the planet. These clouds grow and disappear over a few days and generate lightning. Streaks form as clouds are sheared apart by Jupiter’s intense jet streams that run parallel to the colored bands. The prominent dark band in the northern half of the planet is the location of Jupiter’s fastest jet stream, with eastward winds of 300 miles per hour. Jupiter’s diameter is eleven times that of Earth, so the smallest storms on this mosaic are comparable in size to the largest hurricanes on Earth.	This dramatic view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and its surroundings was obtained by Voyager 1 on February 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 100 miles across can be seen here. The wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex and variable wave motion. To give a sense of Jupiter’s scale, the white oval storm directly below the Great Red Spot is approximately the same diameter as Earth. Photograph courtesy of NASA.

This “family portrait,” a composite of the Jovian system, includes the edge of Jupiter with its Great Red Spot, and Jupiter’s four largest moons, also known as the Galilean satellites. From top to bottom, the moons shown are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. PIA00600