Io may be close to thermal equilibrium, according to a study published this week in Nature. And if the new findings are correct, the volcanically wild moon could one day break free of Jupiter's hold — and lose its rare, volcanic splendor.
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When Mars and Jupiter migrated to their present orbits around 4 billion years ago, they left scars in the asteroid belt that are still visible today.
The evidence is unveiled in a new paper in this week's issue of the journal Nature, by planetary scientists David Minton and Renu Malhotra from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The asteroid belt has long been known to harbor gaps, called Kirkwood gaps, in distinct locations. Some of these gaps correspond to unstable zones, where the modern-day gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn eject asteroids. But for the first time, Minton and Malhotra have noticed that some clearings don't fit the bill.
"What we found was that many regions are depleted in asteroids relative to other regions, not just in the previously known Kirkwood gaps that are explained by the current planetary orbits," Minton wrote in an email. In an editorial accompanying the paper, author Kevin Walsh added, "Qualitatively, it looks as if a snow plough were driven through the main asteroid belt, kicking out asteroids along the way and slowing to a stop at the inner edge of the belt."
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of hide-and-seek. In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it hides behind the giant planet. Images like this one are not only gorgeous and enjoyable to look at, but are also useful for studying Jupiter's upper atmosphere. As Ganymede passes behind the giant planet, it reflects sunlight, which then passes through Jupiter's atmosphere. Imprinted on that light is information about the gas giant's atmosphere, which yields clues about the properties of Jupiter's high-altitude haze above the cloud tops. And because Hubble's view is so sharp, we can learn more about Ganymede as well. Visible are several features on the moon's surface, most notably the white impact crater, Tros, and its system of rays, bright streaks of material blasted from the crater. Tros and its ray system are roughly the width of Arizona. Hubble has amazing eyesight!
And there's a movie, too!
More about Ganymede and Jupiter…
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Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by a geophysicist who simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. "Our simulations show there is a big rocky object in the center surrounded by an ice layer and hardly any ice elsewhere in the planet," said Burkhard Militzer from University of California, Berkeley. "This is a very different result for the interior structure of Jupiter than other recent models, which predict a relatively small or hardly any core and a mixture of ices throughout the atmosphere." A comparison of this model with the planet's known mass, radius, surface temperature, gravity and equatorial bulge implies that Jupiter's core is an Earth-like rock 14 to 18 times the mass of Earth, or about one-twentieth of Jupiter's total mass, Militzer said. Previous models predicted a much smaller core of only 7 Earth masses, or no core at all.
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NASA has decided to return to Jupiter with a mission to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth study of the largest planet in our solar system. The mission is called Juno, and it will be the first in which a spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the giant planet to understand its formation, evolution and structure. Missions to Jupiter have been on again, off again, with a mission to Europa falling during the 2006 budget cuts, and the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (which would have used a nuclear reactor to power an ion engine to send an orbiter to 3 of Jupiter's moons) getting the ax in 2005. Juno has been on the table since 2004, surviving budget cuts, although the mission has experienced delays. But it looks official now, and the spacecraft is scheduled to launch in August 2011, reaching Jupiter in 2016.
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Everyone loves twinkling stars and moonlit nights—EXCEPT astronomers. But astronomers are crafty people, so they've come up with ways to mitigate the distortion that Earth's thick atmosphere causes for ground based telescopes (from which stars appear to twinkle). And now, a new image-correction technique has delivered the sharpest whole-planet ground-based picture ever. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) performed a record two-hour observation of Jupiter using a breakthrough technique to remove atmospheric blur. And what a result! Just take a look at that gorgeous image…And this new image reveals changes in Jupiter's smog-like haze, probably in response to a planet-wide upheaval more than a year ago.
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As far as storms go, nothing will rival Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS). But of interest is a smaller and newer storm called Oval BA, a giant anticyclone on Jupiter also known as Red Spot Junior. 'Smaller' is a relative term, as although Oval BA is about half the size of GRS, it has a diameter about the size of our Earth. It formed in 2000 as several vortices converged. However, recently Oval BA has undergone some changes. Suddenly it turned from white to red in a period of just a few months, and planetary scientists are trying to understand the processes that could cause the changes. While they are able to explain some of Red Spot Junior's attributes, they are puzzled by others.
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Rendering of a blue liquid metal... could this be what metallic helium looks like? Source: http://tinyurl.com/6lffol (waxellis)
Filed under: Jupiter, Physics, Saturn | 21 Comments »
Greetings, Fellow Stratos Dwellers! Have you had more than your fair share of clouds lately and are hankering for a few photons? Skies haven't been spectacular in this part of the world either and when it is clear, the heat is sure making it difficult to get a nice steady view. But, it's a nice night out. Wanna' take out the StarGazer's telescope and have a look at Jupiter? I'll see you in the back yard… Read more…
Filed under: Astronomy, Astronomy For Kids, Jupiter, Observing | 3 Comments »
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been observed for over 150 years, and it doesn't appear this anti-cyclonic storm is showing any signs of letting up. How does it maintain its power? Well, like a planetary Pac-Man, it "eats up" other storms, zapping them of their power. The sequence of images here from the Hubble Space Telescope shows three different storms on Jupiter: The Great Red Spot, Red Spot Jr. (otherwise known as Oval BA, to the south of GRS), and Baby Red Spot, to the left of GRS in the first two images. Baby got a little too close to big brother GRS, and may have been snuffed out. But GRS keeps on keeping on. These three natural-color Jupiter images were made from data acquired on May 15, June 28, and July 8, 2008, by the Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
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Jupiter appears to be breaking out with spots, as a third red storm has joined the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. (or Oval BA) in the planet's turbulent atmosphere. This third spot used to be a white storm, and its change to a red color might mean the storm is becoming more powerful. Astronomers believe these new images captured by both the Hubble and the Keck telescope may show that Jupiter is undergoing a major climate change, as was predicted four years ago.
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Scientists have expressed their concern that the Solar System may not be as stable as it seems. Happily orbiting the Sun, the eight planets (plus Pluto and other minor planets) appear to have a high degree of long-term gravitational stability. But Jupiter has a huge gravitational influence over its siblings, especially the smaller planets. It appears that the long-term prospects for the smallest planet are bleak. The huge gravitational pull of Jupiter seems to be bullying Mercury into an increasingly eccentric death-orbit, possibly flinging the cosmic lightweight into the path of Venus. To make things worse, there might be dire consequences for Earth…
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Robotic spacecraft can gather a lot of data, and sometimes it takes years to sort through all the information acquired. Case in point: The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter from 1995-2003. One discovery made by this mission was an anomaly in Jupiter’s rings. For the most part, the rings fall into the standard model of ring formation where the ring particles are shepherded by the orbits of four of Jupiter’s moons; Adrastea, Metis, Amalthea and Thebe (closest to farthest.) But a faint outward protrusion of dust extends beyond the orbit of Thebe, and scientists were mystified why this was occurring.
But a new study of data from the Galileo mission has found that this extension results from the interplay of shadow and sunlight on dust particles that make up the rings.
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Jupiter is a spotty place. There's the aptly-named Great Red Spot – a large, long-lasting storm – that we all know and love, and new storms crop up every so often to create interesting features for astronomers both professional and amateur to study. The most recent discovery of new spots can only be seen in the UV, but they add a whole new level of complexity for scientists to chew on. Read more…
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Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than the Earth's. It is therefore of no surprise that the highly energetic and damaging particles flying around in the Earths Van Allen Belts can be found within Jupiter's magnetosphere too. But are the mechanisms energizing these particles the same for both planets? New research suggests that the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Earth may have more in common than previously thought…
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