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\t\t\t\t\t\t25\/06\/2024<\/span> Using the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, scientists observed the region above Jupiter\u2019s iconic Great Red Spot to discover a variety of previously unseen features. The region, previously believed to be unremarkable in nature, hosts a variety of intricate structures and activity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, and it is easily seen on a clear night. Aside from the bright northern and southern lights at the planet\u2019s polar regions, the glow from Jupiter\u2019s upper atmosphere is weak and is therefore challenging for ground-based telescopes to discern details in this region. However, Webb\u2019s infrared sensitivity allows scientists to study Jupiter\u2019s upper atmosphere above the infamous Great Red Spot with unprecedented detail.<\/p>\n The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is the interface between the planet\u2019s magnetic field and the underlying atmosphere. Here, the bright and vibrant displays of northern and southern lights can be seen, which are fuelled by the volcanic material ejected from Jupiter\u2019s moon Io. However, closer to the equator, the structure of the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere is influenced by incoming sunlight. Because Jupiter receives only 4% of the sunlight that is received on Earth, astronomers predicted this region to be homogeneous in nature.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Great Red Spot of Jupiter was observed by Webb\u2019s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in July 2022, using the instrument\u2019s Integral Field Unit capabilities. The team\u2019s Early Release Science observations sought to investigate if this region was in fact dull, and the region above the iconic Great Red Spot was targeted for Webb\u2019s observations. The team was surprised to discover that the upper atmosphere hosts a variety of intricate structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought this region, perhaps naively, would be really boring,\u201d\u00a0shared team leader Henrik Melin of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.\u00a0\u201cIt is in fact just as interesting as the northern lights, if not more so. Jupiter never ceases to surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the light emitted from this region is driven by sunlight, the team suggests there must be another mechanism altering the shape and structure of the upper atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne way in which you can change this structure is by gravity waves – similar to waves crashing on a beach, creating ripples in the sand,\u201d\u00a0explained Henrik.\u00a0\u201cThese waves are generated deep in the turbulent lower atmosphere, all around the Great Red Spot, and they can travel up in altitude, changing the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n The team explains that these atmospheric waves can be observed on Earth on occasion, however they are much weaker than those observed on Jupiter by Webb. They also hope to conduct follow-up Webb observations of these intricate wave patterns in the future to investigate how the patterns move within the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere and to develop our understanding of the energy budget of this region and how the features change over time.<\/p>\n These findings may also support ESA\u2019s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer,\u00a0Juice, which was launched on 14 April 2023. Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons\u00a0\u2013 Ganymede, Callisto and Europa\u00a0\u2013 with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will characterise these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter\u2019s complex environment in depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe.<\/p>\n These observations were taken as part of the Early Release Science programme\u00a0#1373:\u00a0ERS Observations of the Jovian System as a Demonstration of JWST\u2019s Capabilities for Solar System Science\u00a0<\/i>(Co-PIs: I. de Pater, T. Fouchet).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis ERS proposal was written back in 2017,\u201d shared team member Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley.\u00a0\u201cOne of our objectives had been to investigate why the temperature above the Great Red Spot appeared to be high, as at the time recent observations with the\u00a0NASA Infrared Telescope Facility\u00a0had revealed. However, our new data showed very different results.\u201d<\/p>\n These results have been published in\u00a0Nature Astronomy.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \nMore information<\/b> Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).<\/p>\n Release on esawebb.org<\/p>\n \nContact:<\/b>
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Webb\u00a0is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Under an international collaboration agreement, ESA provided the telescope\u2019s launch service, using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. ESA also provided the workhorse spectrograph\u00a0NIRSpec\u00a0and 50% of the mid-infrared instrument\u00a0MIRI, which was designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n
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