Items tagged with Jupiter
Jupiter is well-known for its Great Red Spot, but astronomers have recently discovered equally large spots at the giant gas planet’s north and south poles that appear and disappear at random. The dark UV ovals were first spotted by NASA’s Hubble spacecraft in the late 1990s, but have only recently been studied in...
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NASA is set to livestream the launch of its Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in a search for signs for possible alien life. Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter around April 2030, and is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever deployed for a planetary mission.
Joining...
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A Kobe University researcher has confirmed that an asteroid which struck Jupiter’s moon Ganymede was about 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth. According to the new study, when the asteroid struck Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, its axis shifted because of the...
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Mars and Jupiter are set to dazzle stargazers in a rare event tonight, as the two planets appear just a third of a degree from one another in the night sky. The close conjunction of the two planets has not occurred since 2015, and won’t happen again until 2033.
All of the major planets in the solar system orbit the...
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured a stunning image of Jupiter’s chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms. The image of the gas giant’s northern hemisphere was taken during the spacecraft’s 61st close flyby.
Juno first arrived at Jupiter, known for its violent storms, in 2016, following a 1.7 billion-mile journey from...
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Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University say there is something rotten in the Universe. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the group found evidence that Jupiter-like exoplanet HD 189733 b has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a molecule that gives off the stench of rotten eggs. To make matters worse, the...
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As Webb continues changing how astronomers and scientists view the Universe, its ability to capture objects in high-resolution has aided in unveiling new features in spots studied for decades. Such is the case with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and a new feature that took astronomers by surprise.
In an image captured by...
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured an up close and personal view of Jupiter’s moon Europa during a recent flyby. The detailed images of Europa’s surface highlight fractures, ridges, and bands that crisscross the icy moon’s surface.
On September 29, 2022, Juno made its closest flyby yet of Jupiter’s moon Europa, coming...
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Out of the more than 5,000 exoplanets detected, only a handful have a density that is comparable to cotton candy. Exoplanets like these may bring to mind the iconic movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space, and the cotton candy cocoon guns the Klowns used.
The latest of these exoplanets to be discovered, WASP-193b, is...
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Jupiter, which show off the giant planet’s cyclones, wind shear, and violent storms churning in its atmosphere. Hubble monitors Jupiter and the other outer solar system planets each year under the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy Program (OPAL), in order to document the...
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been busy this month, snapping images of both Jupiter and its moon lo. Juno was first launched in 2011. It reached Jupiter in 2016, and has since been gathering data on the giant gas planet and its moons.
The Juno spacecraft has been fascinating NASA scientists and astronomers back on...
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Great balls of fire, NASA’s Juno spacecraft snapped a closeup image of Jupiter’s moon lo that showed an erupting volcano. Juno has performed more than 55 flybys of Jupiter, as well as the closest flyby of the giant planet’s moon lo in over 20 years.
NASA says that Jupiter’s moon lo is the most volcanically active...
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NASA's Webb telescope discovered a high-speed jet over Jupiter's equator. The new finding is giving researchers insight into how the layers of the gas giant's atmosphere interact.
Jupiter has some very well-known features, like its Great Red Spot which is large enough to engulf Earth. This mammoth planet, which...
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NASA's Europa Clipper received a massive upgrade in preparation for its launch scheduled for October 2024. The space agency added a high-gain antenna, one ET would have loved to have had to phone home with, that will enable the spacecraft to communicate with ground control back here on Earth from hundreds of millions...
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NASA's Juno spacecraft captured the green glow of a lightning strike in the midst of a vortex near Jupiter's north pole as it made its 31st close flyby of the planet. The orbital path of Juno will take the spacecraft close to the giant planet's night side, which will provide even more opportunities for the...
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A message in a bottle is headed to Jupiter's moon Europa later this year, and anyone can add their name to it. The message contains a poem written by US Poet Laureate Ada Limon titled, "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa."
The "Message in a Bottle" campaign will include names received before midnight on...
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As part of its "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APOD), NASA posted this photo of anti-cyclone storms captured by the Juno spacecraft over Jupiter that's equally beautiful as it is ominous. We're just glad we don't have things like that here on earth!
On a recent low-level flyby over the largest planet in our solar...
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NASA's Lucy mission captured its first images of Trojan asteroids in late March. The four Jupiter Trojan asteroids the spacecraft viewed were Eurybates, Polymele, Leucus, and Orus.
Most of Lucy's target asteroids, called "Trojans" after characters from Greek mythology, are left over from the solar system's...
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NASA is scouring engineering data taken by the orbiter's JunoCam in order to understand why the majority of images from the spacecraft were not acquired. The missing data is from Juno's most recent flyby of Jupiter on January 22, 2023.
The Juno spacecraft began its journey toward Jupiter back in August 2011. After...
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The largest volcanic eruption detected yet on Io, Jupiter's innermost moon, was observed in late 2022. The eruption was detected by Jeff Morgenthaler of the Planetary Science Institute utilizing the PSI's Io Input/Output observatory (IoIO).
Jupiter's moon Io is no stranger to volcanic eruptions. The first volcanic...
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ESA's Mars Express captured a rare moment, when Mars' moon Deimos passed in front of Jupiter and its four largest moons. The footage precedes the European Space Agency's upcoming launch of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer next year.
Since launching in 2003, Mars Express has been able to create the most complete map...
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9/26/2022 Update
As a reminder, Jupiter's closest pass to Earth is tonight, so don't miss the opportunity to see it! It is a busy night for space as the NASA DART mission is reaching its conclusion this evening as well. Original story below...
Jupiter will be in opposition to the Sun later this month, presenting an...
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