Hubble Tracks Jupiter's Stormy Weather

March 14, 2024 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2024-009
A side-by-side image showing both faces of Jupiter on the black background of space. At the top, left corner of the left-hand image is the label Jupiter. Centered at the bottom is the label "January 5, 2024." Jupiter is banded in stripes of brownish orange, light gray, soft yellow, and shades of cream, punctuated with many large storms and small white clouds. The largest storm, the Great Red Spot, is the most prominent feature in the left bottom third of this view. To its lower right is a smaller reddish anticyclone, Red Spot Jr. On the right-hand image, centered at the bottom is the label "January 6, 2024." This opposite side of Jupiter is also banded in stripes of brownish orange, light gray, soft yellow, and shades of cream, with many large storms and small white clouds punctuating the planet. At upper right of center, a pair of storms appear next to each other: a deep-red, triangle-shaped cyclone and a reddish anticyclone. Toward the far-left edge of this view is Jupiter's tiny orange-colored moon Io.

Summary

Cyclones, Wind Shear, Violent Storms Churn in Jupiter's Atmosphere

The largest and nearest of the giant outer planets, Jupiter's colorful clouds present an ever-changing kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. This is a planet where there is always stormy weather: cyclones, anticyclones, wind shear, and the largest storm in the solar system, the Great Red Spot. Jupiter has no solid surface and is perpetually covered with largely ammonia ice-crystal clouds that are only about 30 miles thick in an atmosphere that's tens of thousands of miles deep and give the planet its banded appearance. The bands are produced by air flowing in different directions at various latitudes with speeds approaching 350 miles per hour. Lighter-hued areas where the atmosphere rises are called zones. Darker regions where air falls are called belts. When these opposing flows interact, storms and turbulence appear. Hubble tracks these dynamic changes every year with unprecedented clarity, and there are always new surprises. The many large storms and small white clouds seen in Hubble's latest images are evidence for a lot of activity going on in Jupiter's atmosphere right now.

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