A Sense of Doubt blog post #2326 - New Images of Jupiter and Europa from Hubble
Just some space stuff today. Thanks for tuning in.
https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2017/
heic2017 — Photo Release
Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
17 September 2020
This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Telescope on 25 August 2020, was captured when the planet was 653 million
kilometres from Earth. Hubble’s sharp view is giving researchers an updated
weather report on the monster planet’s turbulent atmosphere, including a
remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the Great Red Spot changing
colour — again. The new image also features Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
A unique
and exciting detail of Hubble’s new snapshot appears at mid-northern latitudes
as a bright, white, stretched-out storm moving at 560 kilometres per hour. This
single plume erupted on 18 August 2020 and another has since appeared.
While it’s common for storms to pop up in this region, often
several at once, this particular disturbance appears to have more structure
behind it than observed in previous storms. Trailing behind the plume are
small, counterclockwise dark clumps also not witnessed in the past. Researchers
speculate this may be the beginning of a longer-lasting northern hemisphere
spot, perhaps to rival the legendary Great Red Spot that dominates the southern
hemisphere.
Hubble shows that the Great Red Spot, rolling counterclockwise
in the planet’s southern hemisphere, is ploughing into the clouds ahead of it,
forming a cascade of white and beige ribbons. The Great Red Spot is currently
an exceptionally rich red colour, with its core and outermost band appearing
deeper red.
Researchers say the Great Red Spot now measures about 15 800
kilometres across, big enough to swallow the Earth. The super-storm is still
shrinking, as noted in telescopic observations dating back to 1930, but its
rate of shrinkage appears to have slowed. The reason for its dwindling size is
a complete mystery.
Researchers are noticing that another feature has changed: the
Oval BA, nicknamed by astronomers as Red Spot Jr., which appears just below the
Great Red Spot in this image. For the past few years, Red Spot Jr. has been
fading in colour to its original shade of white after appearing red in 2006. However, now the
core of this storm appears to be darkening to a reddish hue. This could hint
that Red Spot Jr. is on its way to reverting to a colour more similar to that
of its cousin.
Hubble’s image shows that Jupiter is clearing out its
higher-altitude white clouds, especially along the planet’s equator, which is
enveloped in an orangish hydrocarbon smog.
Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is visible to the left of the gas
giant. Europa is already thought to harbour a liquid ocean beneath its icy
crust, making this moon one of the main targets in the search for habitable
worlds beyond Earth. In 2013 it was announced that the Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapour erupting from the
frigid surface of Europa, in one or more localised plumes near its south pole.
ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned
for launch in 2022, aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest
moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Hubble also captured a new multiwavelength observation in
ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared light of Jupiter on 25 August 2020, which is
giving researchers an entirely new view of the giant planet. Hubble’s near
infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic
look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet’s
haze and particles. This complements Hubble’s visible-light picture that shows
the ever-changing cloud patterns.
Notes
These new
Hubble images form part of yearly maps of the entire planet taken under the
Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy programme, or OPAL. The programme provides yearly Hubble
global views of the outer planets to look for changes in their storms, winds,
and clouds.
More information
The
Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA
and NASA.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center),
and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.
Links
Contacts
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer
Garching, Germany
Email: bethany.downer@esahubble.org
Usage of ESA/Hubble Images and Videos
Are you a journalist? Subscribe to the ESA/Hubble Media
Newsletter.
EUROPA
https://spacetelescope.org/news/heic1322/
heic1322 — Science Release
Hubble discovers water vapour venting from Jupiter’s moon Europa
12 December 2013
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered water vapour erupting from the frigid surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, in one or more localised plumes near its south pole.
Europa is already thought to harbour a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, making the moon one of the main targets in the search for habitable worlds away from Earth. This new finding is the first observational evidence of water vapour being ejected off the moon's surface.
"The discovery that water vapour is ejected near the south pole strengthens Europa's position as the top candidate for potential habitability," said lead author Lorenz Roth of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "However, we do not know yet if these plumes are connected to subsurface liquid water or not." The Hubble findings will be published in the 12 December online issue of Science Express, and are being reported today at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, USA.
The Hubble discovery makes Europa only the second moon in the Solar System known to have water vapour plumes. In 2005, plumes of water vapour and dust were detected by NASA's Cassini orbiter spewing off the surface of the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
The Europa plumes were discovered by Hubble observations in December 2012. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) detected faint ultraviolet light from an aurora at the moon's south pole. This aurora is driven by Jupiter's intense magnetic field, which causes particles to reach such high speeds that they can split the water molecules in the plume when they hit them, resulting in oxygen and hydrogen ions which leave their telltale imprint in the colours of the aurora.
So far, only water vapour has been detected — unlike the plumes on Enceladus, which also contain ice and dust particles.
"We pushed Hubble to its limits to see this very faint emission," said co-lead author and principal investigator of the Hubble observing campaign Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne, Germany. "Only after a particular camera on the Hubble Space Telescope had been repaired on the last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle did we gain the sensitivity to really search for these plumes."
Roth suggests long cracks on Europa's surface, known as linea, might be venting water vapour into space. Similar fissures have been photographed near Enceladus's south pole by the Cassini spacecraft. It is unknown how deep inside Europa's crust the source of the water may be. Roth asks, "Do the vents extend down to a subsurface ocean or are the ejecta simply from warmed ice caused by friction stresses near the surface?"
Also like Enceladus, the Hubble team found that the intensity of the plumes varies with Europa's orbital position. Active geysers have only been seen when the moon is furthest from Jupiter. But the researchers could not detect any sign of venting when Europa is closer to Jupiter.
One explanation is that the long fractures in the ice crust experience more stress as gravitational tidal forces push and pull on the moon and so open vents at larger distances from Jupiter. The vents are narrowed or closed when at closest approach to the gas giant planet [1]. Team member Kurt Retherford, also of the Southwest Research Institute, points out that "the plume variability supports a key prediction that we should see this kind of tidal effect if there is a subsurface ocean on Europa".
Future space probe missions to Europa could confirm that the exact locations and sizes of vents and determine whether they connect to liquid subsurface reservoirs. It is important news for missions such as ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, and which aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Notes
[1] When Europa orbits around Jupiter, the moon experiences varying tidal forces at different points in its orbit. The tidal stresses compress the vents at the south pole region when Europa is closest to Jupiter, and stretch them when Europa is furthest away, making it possible for the vents to open up. A subsurface ocean would allow the stresses on Europa's surface to be much stronger as the interior would be malleable and flexible.
Notes for editors
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
The international team of astronomers in this study consists of L. Roth (Southwest Research Institute, USA; University of Cologne, Germany), J. Saur (University of Cologne, Germany), K. D. Retherford (Southwest Research Institute, USA), D. F. Strobel (The Johns Hopkins University, USA), P. D. Feldman (The Johns Hopkins University, USA), M. A. McGrath (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, USA), F. Nimmo (University of California, USA).
More information
Image credit: NASA, ESA, L. Roth (Southwest Research Institute, USA/University of Cologne, Germany) and M. Kornmesser.
Links
Contacts
Lorenz Roth
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
University of Cologne, Germany
Tel: +1-210-522-2225
Email: lorenz.roth@swri.org
Joachim Saur
University of Cologne
Germany
Tel: +49-221-470-2310
Email: jsaur@uni-koeln.de
Nicky Guttridge
ESA/Hubble Public Information Officer
Garching, Germany
Tel: +49-89-3200-6855
Cell: +44 7512 318322
Email: nguttrid@partner.eso.org
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Tel: +1-410-338-4514
Email: villard@stsci.edu
Are you a journalist? Subscribe to the ESA/Hubble Media Newsletter.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2107.01 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2190 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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