Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

NASA recently published a spectacular image of Jupiter, the largest planet, acquired by the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft. The image, taken during the spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter in February 2007, shows exquisite details in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.

The image is a composite of several images taken in various colors by the New Horizons Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). It reveals the amazing diversity of structures in Jupiter's atmosphere, in colors similar to those that would be perceived by a hypothetical astronaut onboard New Horizons.

The view was taken near the terminator, the boundary between day and night on Jupiter. Relatively small-scale, turbulent, whirlpool-like structures are visible near the south pole of the planet. The dark "holes" in this region are actually places where there is very little cloud cover, so sunlight is not reflected back to the camera.

Moving toward the equator, the atmospheric structures become more elongated in an east-west orientation, taking on the Jovian characteristic pattern of dark "belts" and light "zones". A herringbone pattern of clouds, known as "mesoscale waves", is located in the equator, especially near the edge of the terminator where the glancing angle of sunlight enhances the alternating dark and light north-south stripes. The energy to form these waves comes from deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere.

This picture provides a wonderful illustration that Jupiter's atmospheric color contrast is the highest in the Solar System. Data collected from these and other New Horizons images taken during the flyby will provide valuable insight into the processes occurring in this restless giant planet.

New Horizons was launched in January 2006. After about 13 months in space, the spacecraft flew by Jupiter for a "gravity assist" that accelerated New Horizons toward its ultimate destination, Dwarf Planet Pluto. New Horizons made the shortest spaceflight to Jupiter and would be the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and the far outreaches of the Solar System.

Further Reading

New Horizons Website

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

The Eight Planets

www.nineplanets.org/ 

Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem

Senior Astronomy Specialist