Distribution of Water in Jupiter's Stratosphere

This map shows the distribution of water in the stratosphere of Jupiter as measured with ESA's Herschel space observatory. White and cyan indicate highest concentration of water, and blue indicates lesser amounts. The map has been superimposed over an image of Jupiter taken at visible wavelengths with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The distribution of water clearly shows an asymmetric distribution across the planet's disc: water is more abundant in the southern hemisphere. Based on this and other clues collected with Herschel, astronomers have established that at least 95 per cent of the water currently present in Jupiter's stratosphere has been supplied by comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which famously impacted the planet at intermediate southern latitudes in 1994.

The map is based on spectrometric data collected with the PACS instrument on board Herschel around 66.4 microns, a wavelength that corresponds to one of water's many spectral signatures.

Image credit: Water map: ESA/Herschel/T. Cavalié et al.; Jupiter image: NASA/ESA/Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University)

Note: For more information, see Herschel Links Water in Stratosphere to 1994 Comet Impact and Herschel Links Water Around Jupiter to Comet Impact.

Vortices Bump into a Hot Spot in Jupiter's Atmosphere

In this series of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, a dark, rectangular hot spot (top) interacts with a line of vortices that approaches from on the upper-right side (second panel). The interaction distorts the shape of the hot spot (third panel), leaving it diminished (bottom). The black scale bar is about 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) wide, or about twice as wide as the United States.

From top to bottom, these images were taken on November 21, November 24, November 27 and December 3, 2000 by Cassini's imaging science subsystem.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/GSFC

Note: For more information, see 'Hot Spots' Ride a Merry-Go-Round on Jupiter.

Dark Hot Spot in Jupiter's Atmosphere

The dark hot spot in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft is a window deep into Jupiter's atmosphere. All around it are layers of higher clouds, with colors indicating which layer of the atmosphere the clouds are in. The bluish clouds to the right are in the upper troposphere, or perhaps higher still, in the stratosphere. The reddish gyre under the hot spot to the right and the large reddish plume at its lower left are in the lower troposphere. In addition, a high, gauzy haze covers part of the frame. An annotated version of this image highlights the hot spot in the middle with an arrow and boxes around the plume and the gyre.

This image was taken on December 13, 2000, by Cassini's imaging science subsystem.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/GSFC

Note: For more information, see 'Hot Spots' Ride a Merry-Go-Round on Jupiter.

Jupiter Jet Stream

Following the path of one of Jupiter's jet streams, a line of v-shaped chevrons travels west to east just above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Most of the planet is unfolded here in a single flat map made on December 11 and 12, 2000, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Jupiter. At the left, the chevrons run into another storm called the South Equatorial Disturbance (SED).

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Note: For more information, see Cassini Spies Wave Rattling Jet Stream on Jupiter.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot

This Voyager 2 image shows the region of Jupiter extending from the equator to the southern polar latitudes in the neighborhood of the Great Red Spot. A white oval, different from the one observed in a similar position at the time of the Voyager 1 encounter, is situated south of the Great Red Spot. The region of white clouds now extends from east of the red spot and around its northern boundary, preventing small cloud vortices from circling the feature. The disturbed region west of the red spot has also changed since the equivalent Voyager 1 image. It shows more small scale structure and cloud vortices being formed out of the wave structures. The picture was taken on July 3, 1979 from 6 million kilometers (3.72 million miles).

Photo credit: NASA/JPL

What Juno Will See at Jupiter's South Pole

This simulated view of the south pole of Jupiter illustrates the unique perspective of NASA's Juno mission. The spacecraft's polar orbit will allow Juno's camera, called JunoCam, to image Jupiter's clouds from a vantage point never accessed by other spacecraft.

JunoCam was designed to return the best-ever images of Jupiter's pole. It has a 58-degree-wide field of view encompassing the entire polar region. The view illustrated here simulates an image taken 40 minutes before Juno's closest approach to Jupiter. At closest approach, JunoCam's images of Jupiter's cloudtops will have a resolution better than 3.1 miles (5 kilometers).

Illustration credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

Acetylene at Jupiter's North and South Poles

These images and movie show the distribution of the organic molecule acetylene at the north and south poles of Jupiter, based on data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in early January 2001. It is the highest-resolution map of acetylene to date on Jupiter. The enhanced emission results both from the warmer temperatures in the auroral hot spots, and probably also from an enhanced abundance in these regions. The detection helps scientists understand the chemical interactions between sunlight and molecules in Jupiter's stratosphere.

These maps were made by NASA's composite infrared spectrometer.

Photo and video credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC

Jupiter Loses a Stripe

In a development that has transformed the appearance of the solar system's largest planet, one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts has completely disappeared.

"This is a big event," says planetary scientist Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "We're monitoring the situation closely and do not yet fully understand what's going on."

Known as the South Equatorial Belt (SEB), the brown cloudy band is twice as wide as Earth and more than twenty times as long. The loss of such an enormous "stripe" can be seen with ease halfway across the solar system.

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Orton thinks the belt is not actually gone, but may be just hiding underneath some higher clouds.

"It's possible," he hypothesizes, "that some 'ammonia cirrus' has formed on top of the SEB, hiding the SEB from view." On Earth, white wispy cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals. On Jupiter, the same sort of clouds can form, but the crystals are made of ammonia (NH3) instead of water (H20).

What would trigger such a broad outbreak of "ammonia cirrus"? Orton suspects that changes in global wind patterns have brought ammonia-rich material into the clear, cold zone above the SEB, setting the stage for formation of the high-altitude, icy clouds.

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This isn't the first time the SEB has faded out.

"The SEB fades at irregular intervals, most recently in 1973-75, 1989-90, 1993, 2007, 2010," says John Rogers, director of the British Astronomical Association's Jupiter Section. "The 2007 fading was terminated rather early, but in the other years the SEB was almost absent, as at present."

The return of the SEB can be dramatic.

"We can look forward to a spectacular outburst of storms and vortices when the 'SEB Revival' begins," says Rogers. "It always begins at a single point, and a disturbance spreads out rapidly around the planet from there, often becoming spectacular even for amateurs eyeballing the planet through medium-sized telescopes. However we can't predict when or where it will start. On historical precedent it could be any time in the next 2 years. We hope it will be in the next few months so that everyone can get a good view.

Photo credit: Anthony Wesley