Jupiter’s atmosphere around the Great Red Spot (NIRSpec image)

New observations of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the region observed by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). It is stitched together from six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each around 300 square km.

The NIRSpec observations show infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie over 300 km above the clouds of the storm, where light from the Sun ionises the hydrogen and stimulates this infrared emission. In this image, redder colours display the hydrogen emission from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colours show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud-tops in the atmosphere and the very prominent Great Red Spot.

Jupiter is distant from the Sun and therefore receives a uniform, low level of daylight, meaning that most of the planet’s surface is relatively dim at these infrared wavelengths – especially compared to the emission from molecules near the poles, where Jupiter’s magnetic field is especially strong. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations that this area would therefore look homogeneous in nature, it hosts a variety of intricate structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view.

[Image Description: A image of a small area of Jupiter’s atmosphere, shaped like a jagged rectangle. The image is fuzzy and ranges from red to blue in colours, where bluer colours show lower altitudes in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and redder colours show higher altitudes. The image is centred on the Great Red Spot, which stands out as a blue circle.]

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Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0

Taken on: June 25, 2024

Tags:

Jupiter

Solar System

ESA

European Space Agency

Space

Universe

Cosmos

Space Science

Science

JWST

Webb

James Webb

James Webb Space Space Telescope

CSA

Canadian Space Agency

NASA

WebbESA

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Sets appears in: • Webb

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