New observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the area observed by Webb: first the location on a NIRCam image of the entire planet (left), and the area itself (right), imaged by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). The NIRSpec image is composed of six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each approximately 300 square kilometers, and shows infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie more than 200 miles above the storm’s clouds, where light from the sun ionizes the hydrogen and fuels this infrared emission. In this image, redder colors represent hydrogen emissions from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colors show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud tops in the atmosphere and the very prominent Great Red Spot. Jupiter is far from the Sun and therefore receives a uniform, low level of daylight, meaning most of the planet’s surface is relatively dark at these infrared wavelengths – especially compared to the emission from molecules near the poles, where Jupiter’s magnetic field is particularly strong. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations that this area would therefore appear homogeneous in nature, it harbors a variety of complex structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Jupiter ERS Team, J. Schmidt, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
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New observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the area observed by Webb: first the location on a NIRCam image of the entire planet (left), and the area itself (right), imaged by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). The NIRSpec image is composed of six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each approximately 300 square kilometers, and shows infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie more than 200 miles above the storm’s clouds, where light from the sun ionizes the hydrogen and fuels this infrared emission. In this image, redder colors represent hydrogen emission from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colors show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud tops in the atmosphere and the very prominent Great Red Spot. Jupiter is far from the Sun and therefore receives a uniform, low level of daylight, meaning most of the planet’s surface is relatively dark at these infrared wavelengths – especially compared to the emission from molecules near the poles, where Jupiter’s magnetic field is particularly strong. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations that this area would therefore appear homogeneous in nature, it harbors a variety of complex structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Jupiter ERS Team, J. Schmidt, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Using NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have observed the region above Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and discovered a variety of previously unseen features. The region, previously thought to be unremarkable in nature, is home to a variety of intricate structures and activities.
Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky and is easily seen on a clear night. Apart from the bright northern and southern lights in the planet’s polar regions, the glow of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is dim and therefore challenging for ground-based telescopes to pick out details in this region. However, Webb’s infrared sensitivity allows scientists to study Jupiter’s upper atmosphere above the infamous Great Red Spot in unprecedented detail.
Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is the interface between the planet’s magnetic field and the underlying atmosphere. Here you can see the bright and vivid images of the Northern and Southern Lights, fueled by the volcanic material ejected from Jupiter’s moon Io.
Closer to the equator, however, the structure of the planet’s upper atmosphere is affected by incoming sunlight. Because Jupiter receives only 4% of the sunlight received by Earth, astronomers predicted that this region would be homogeneous in nature.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was observed in July 2022 by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec), using the instrument’s Integral Field Unit capabilities. The team’s Early Release Science observations sought to investigate whether this region was indeed dull, and the region above the iconic Great Red Spot was the target of Webb’s observations.
The team was surprised to find that the upper atmosphere is home to a variety of complex structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view. The results have been published in Nature Astronomy.
“We thought, perhaps naively, that this region would be very boring,” says team leader Henrik Melin of the University of Leicester in Great Britain. “It’s actually just as interesting as the Northern Lights, if not more so. Jupiter continues to surprise.”
Although the light emitted from this region is powered by sunlight, the team suggests that there must be some other mechanism that changes the shape and structure of the upper atmosphere.
New observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the area observed by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). It is composed of six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each approximately 300 square kilometers. The NIRSpec observations show infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie more than 200 miles above the storm’s clouds, where light from the sun ionizes the hydrogen and fuels this infrared emission. In this image, redder colors represent hydrogen emission from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colors show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud tops in the atmosphere and the prominent Great Red Spot. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) CC BY 4.0 INT or ESA standard license
× close to
New observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the area observed by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). It is composed of six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each approximately 300 square kilometers. The NIRSpec observations show infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie more than 200 miles above the storm’s clouds, where light from the sun ionizes the hydrogen and fuels this infrared emission. In this image, redder colors represent hydrogen emissions from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colors show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud tops in the atmosphere and the prominent Great Red Spot. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) CC BY 4.0 INT or ESA standard license
“One way you can change this structure is through gravitational waves, similar to waves crashing onto a beach and creating ripples in the sand,” Henrik explains. “These waves are generated deep in the turbulent lower atmosphere, around the Great Red Spot, and they can travel in height, changing the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere.”
The team explains that these atmospheric waves can occasionally be observed on Earth. However, they are much fainter than those observed by Webb on Jupiter. They also hope to conduct follow-up Webb observations of these complex wave patterns in the future to investigate how the patterns travel in the planet’s upper atmosphere and to develop our understanding of this region’s energy budget and how its features evolve over time. change over time.
These findings could also support ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Juice, which launched on April 14, 2023. Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – using a suite of remote sensing systems. geophysical and in situ instruments.
The mission will characterize these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, deeply investigate Jupiter’s complex environment, and study the broader Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants in the universe.
These observations were made as part of the Early Release Science program #1373: ERS Observations of the Jovian System as a Demonstration of JWST’s Capabilities for solar system Science.
“This ERS proposal dates from 2017,” says team member Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley. ‘One of our objectives was to investigate why the temperature above the Great Red Spot appeared high, as recent observations with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility revealed. However, our new data showed very different results.’
More information:
Henrik Melin et al, Ionospheric irregularities at Jupiter observed by JWST, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02305-9
Magazine information:
Nature Astronomy