Hubble Captures Crisp Views of Jupiter's Latest Storms

 

This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on on Aug. 25, 2020, captures a magnificent view of the Great Red Spot, a larger-than-Earth hurricane, along with a remarkable new storm shaped like a caterpillar (upper left) brewing in the planet's northern hemisphere. The image also features Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team

Two gigantic storms appear in this latest Hubble photo of Jupiter — the familiar Great Red Spot that dominates the planet's southern hemisphere and a new tempest that bubbled up alongside the peach-colored North Temperate Belt (NTB) in mid-August. Dubbed the NTB Outbreak it now extends more than halfway around the planet.

The outbreak's genesis are storm systems deep within Jupiter's atmosphere that punched their way to the upper cloud deck and injected fresh ammonia ice and water 19 miles (30 km) above the visible clouds. A powerful jet stream with winds of 370 mph (600 kph) along the southern edge of the NTB interacts with the plume and has since expanded the disturbance into a great wave of storms that will merge into a revived and darker NTB in the coming months.

While it’s common for storms to pop up in this region — NTB Outbreaks recur about every 4 years — this particular disturbance appears to have more structure behind it than observed in previous storms. Trailing behind the plume are small, counterclockwise dark clumps not witnessed in the past. Researchers speculate this may be the beginning of a longer-lasting northern hemisphere spot, perhaps rivaling the legendary Great Red Spot that dominates the southern hemisphere.

Jupiter's easy to find in the southern sky parked right next to Saturn. The waxing gibbous moon will also be in the neighborhood this evening. Stellarium

The Great Red Spot (GRS), which has been visible through telescopes for several hundred years, rolls counterclockwise, ploughing into the clouds ahead of it to form a psychedelic cascade of white and beige ribbons. Currently a deep, rich red, the Spot changes color over time. Several years ago it was pale salmon. The cause of the changes is still a conundrum, but some astronomers think ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun breaks down ammonia and acetylene in the Jupiter's atmosphere which combine to form red-colored compounds.

Jupiter and all four of its brightest moons are visible tonight (Sept. 25) around 8 p.m. local time in a small telescope. To find out when the Great Red Spot is visible, click here. Stellarium

The Great Red Spot now measures about  9,800 miles across (15,800 km), big enough to swallow the Earth. But super-storm has been shrinking in recent decades, and no one's sure why. Another stormy oval is visible below the GRS called Oval BA  and nicknamed Red Spot Jr. The spot appeared red in 2006 but more recently has reverted to its original white color. Notice that its core is again darkening and reddening — perhaps it will soon resemble it's big brother again.

Cracked and ridged plates of ice spread across the surface of Europa. At right, a wide image shows the full moon. NASA

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is visible to the left of the gas giant. Europa has a thick, icy crust broken into giant puzzle pieces and is thought to harbor a liquid ocean beneath its crust, making it one of the main targets in the search for life beyond Earth. Hubble discovered plumes of water vapor erupting from the moon's south polar region in 2013. The European Space Agency's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.