NASAs Hubble Space Telescope is helping scientists learn more about Jupiter and its mysterious Great Red Spot than ever before.
Images captured by the Hubble telescope’s high-performance Wide Field Camera 3 were used to create two global maps of Jupiter. See the results in the stunning high-definition video above.
Looking at the new maps scientists are able to confirm the storm in Jupiters Great Red Spot is shrinking faster than before, according to the NASA release. The spot appears more orange than red now and images show a wispy filament around the vortex not seen before.
Every time we look at Jupiter, we get tantalizing hints that something really exciting is going on, Amy Simon, a planetary scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center said. This time is no exception.
Scientists have also found a rare wave in Jupiters Northern Equatorial Belt. The wave is similar to what happens on Earth when cyclones are forming.
NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft spotted the elusive wave once before, but that was decades ago.
Until now, we thought the wave seen by Voyager 2 might have been a fluke, Glenn Orton of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. As it turns out, its just rare!”
Scientists at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of California at Berkeley published their findings from the images in the Astrophysical Journal.
Images of Jupiter are the first to come from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program. The program will study a different planet Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn — each year using the Hubble Space Telescope. Images of Neptune and Uranus will be available next.
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Hubble Space telescope reveals changes in Jupiter’s Great …
