Even though New Horizon’s Jupiter flyby happened weeks ago, scientists are only just starting to crunch through the data sent back. They’re revealing better and better images of Jupiter, taken by the spacecraft’s powerful instruments. The image attached to this story was taken using New Horizon’s LEISA infrared camera. It’s a false colour photograph – not what you’d actually see if you were looking at Jupiter – but the fine details in the image are impressive.
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Red Jr. Captured By New Horizons
New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter as it zipped past on February 27, 2007 receiving a gravity assisted velocity boost. This photograph was captured when the spacecraft was 3 million km (1.8 million miles), resolving objects as large as 15 km (9 miles) across.
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Chandra and Hubble Imaged Jupiter During New Horizons Flyby
While NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft was making its gravity assisted flyby past Jupiter, some friends back at home were watching to help give the science some perspective. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory gathered images of Jupiter for several days before the flyby, and the combined photographs were released today.
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New Horizons Gets a Gravity Boost From Jupiter
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft got a big speed boost today, when it used Jupiter’s gravity to give it a slingshot towards its final destination of Pluto. It didn’t exactly skim the planet’s surface, but New Horizons got as close as 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) to Jupiter.
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Scientists Lobbying to Search for Life on Europa
Recently I reported on a proposal that spacecraft should return to Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine if it really has an ocean under its icy shell. Another group of scientists are lobbying for a return to Europa as well, as they feel it’s one of the most likely places to find other life in the Solar System.
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NASA’s Next Probe Should Visit Europa
Arizona State University professor Ronald Greeley thinks that NASA’s next flagship mission to the outer planets should be sent to Europa, to help determine if the Jovian moon is a good place to search for life. Greeley presented his rationale at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.
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Looking at Jupiter, From Mars
Guess who took this picture of Jupiter? Hubble? Keck? A well equipped amateur here on Earth? Nope, it was taken by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The picture was taken from orbit around Mars.
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New Horizons Bearing Down on Jupiter
Although New Horizons’ main target is Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, it’ll have plenty of opportunities to do some science along the way. Next up, Jupiter. The spacecraft is now just a few weeks away from its closest approach to the gas giant, where it’ll capture some images but also receive a much needed speed boost.
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Red Spot Jr. is Getting Stronger
Jupiter’s newly formed Red Spot Jr. is increasing in strength, according to new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. These latest measurements clock its windspeeds at 640 kph (400 mph); almost double the speeds recorded by the Voyager spacecraft when it observed one of the spot’s parent storms in 1979. The increased windspeed probably dredged up deeper material from the planet, changing its colour from white to red, similar to the Great Red Spot.
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New Horizons Sets its Sights on Jupiter
You might have seen better looking pictures of Jupiter before, but that’s not the point. What matters is that this photograph was taken by the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft. It took the picture on September 4, 2006 when it was still 291 million km (181 million miles) away from Jupiter. Don’t worry, the pictures will get much better. It’ll make its closest approach on February 28, 2007, and see the giant planet with 125 times better resolution than this picture.
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