Jun 5 1997
From The Space Library
NASA researchers announced that data from the Galileo probe indicated that Jupiter has distinct wet and dry regions similar to the Earth. The finding refuted the previous supposition that Jupiter was mostly dry. When it descended to Jupiter in December 1995, Galileo landed in an extremely dry and hot portion of the planet an area one member of the team called the Sahara Desert of Jupiter. Scientists assumed that the area was representative of the entire planet, until they were able to analyze more long-range images taken by the probe. The Galileo team concluded that Jupiter was remarkably similar to Earth, with wet, dry, hot, and cold regions, as well as rain, snow, and thunderstorms. Before the creation of Galileo, scientists had been unable to observe much of the planet because of surface clouds of frozen ammonia. According to Robert W. Carlson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's most fundamental conclusion was that "There is weather on Jupiter." However, scientists pointed out that, in contrast to Earth, Jupiter faces weather developments that are far more extreme and long lasting. Storms on the planet can last for years or even centuries.
An article in Nature confirmed the discovery of a small icy planet orbiting the Sun well beyond Pluto. The discovery confirmed the theory that the solar system extends far beyond previously verifiable limits. The planet, known as 1996TL66, with a surface area roughly the size of Texas, was the brightest solar-system object that astronomers had discovered beyond Neptune since 1978. Astronomers using a University of Hawaii telescope discovered the planet as its orbit passed closest to the Earth, an occurrence that happens every 800 years. In the past, some researchers had hypothesized, but had been unable to prove, that planets might exist in the area where astronomers discovered 1996TL66.
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