NASA's Webb discovers new feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere
Narrow jet stream near Jupiter's equator has winds traveling 320 miles per hour
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE:
THIS IMAGE OF JUPITER FROM NASA’S JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE’S NIRCAM (NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA) SHOWS STUNNING DETAILS OF THE MAJESTIC PLANET IN INFRARED LIGHT. IN THIS IMAGE, BRIGHTNESS INDICATES HIGH ALTITUDE. THE NUMEROUS BRIGHT WHITE ‘SPOTS’ AND ‘STREAKS’ ARE LIKELY VERY HIGH-ALTITUDE CLOUD TOPS OF CONDENSED CONVECTIVE STORMS. AURORAS, APPEARING IN RED IN THIS IMAGE, EXTEND TO HIGHER ALTITUDES ABOVE BOTH THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN POLES OF THE PLANET. BY CONTRAST, DARK RIBBONS NORTH OF THE EQUATORIAL REGION HAVE LITTLE CLOUD COVER.
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CREDIT: IMAGE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, R. HUESO (UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY), I. DE PATER (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY), T. FOUCHET (OBSERVATORY OF PARIS), L. FLETCHER (UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER), M. WONG (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY), J. DEPASQUALE (STSCI)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new, never-before-seen feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The high-speed jet stream, which spans more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide, sits over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks. The discovery of this jet is giving insights into how the layers of Jupiter’s famously turbulent atmosphere interact with each other, and how Webb is uniquely capable of tracking those features.
“This is something that totally surprised us,” said Ricardo Hueso of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, lead author on the paper describing the findings. “What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation.”
The research team analyzed data from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured in July 2022. The Early Release Science program – jointly led by Imke de Pater from the University of California, Berkeley and Thierry Fouchet from the Observatory of Paris – was designed to take images of Jupiter 10 hours apart, or one Jupiter day, in four different filters, each uniquely able to detect changes in small features at different altitudes of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
“Even though various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft like NASA’s Juno and Cassini, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed the Jovian system’s changing weather patterns, Webb has already provided new findings on Jupiter’s rings, satellites, and its atmosphere,” de Pater noted.
While Jupiter is different from Earth in many ways – Jupiter is a gas giant, Earth is a rocky, temperate world – both planets have layered atmospheres. Infrared, visible, radio, and ultraviolet light wavelengths observed by these other missions detect the lower, deeper layers of the planet’s atmosphere – where gigantic storms and ammonia ice clouds reside.
On the other hand, Webb’s look farther into the near-infrared than before is sensitive to the higher-altitude layers of the atmosphere, around 15-30 miles (25-50 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. In near-infrared imaging, high-altitude hazes typically appear blurry, with enhanced brightness over the equatorial region. With Webb, finer details are resolved within the bright hazy band.
The newly discovered jet stream travels at about 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour), twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane here on Earth. It is located around 25 miles (40 kilometers) above the clouds, in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.
By comparing the winds observed by Webb at high altitudes, to the winds observed at deeper layers from Hubble, the team could measure how fast the winds change with altitude and generate wind shears.
While Webb’s exquisite resolution and wavelength coverage allowed for the detection of small cloud features used to track the jet, the complementary observations from Hubble taken one day after the Webb observations were also crucial to determine the base state of Jupiter’s equatorial atmosphere and observe the development of convective storms in Jupiter’s equator not connected to the jet.
“We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop,” added team member Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the associated Hubble observations.
The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.
“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” explained team member Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. “If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years – it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”
“It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022,” continued Fletcher.
The researchers’ results were recently published in Nature Astronomy.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In Webb’s images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.
CAPTION
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 12-21 miles (20-35 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, researchers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.
CREDIT
Image : NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (University of the Basque Country), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), A. James (STScI)
JOURNAL
Nature Astronomy
ARTICLE TITLE
An intense narrow equatorial jet in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere observed by JWST
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
19-Oct-2023
These photos of Stoke Space's 'Hopper' reusuable rocket test are just amazing
Samantha Mathewson
These photos of Stoke Space's 'Hopper' reusuable rocket test are just amazing
Stoke Space shared stunning new photos from a recent flight test of the company's Hopper reusable rocket prototype.
The flight test, called Hopper2, included a vertical takeoff and vertical landing demonstration, during which the reusable second-stage rocket successfully lifted about 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground and then safely touched down in its targeted landing zone after 15 seconds of flight.
The recent photos that Stoke Space shared on X (formerly Twitter) show the spacecraft on the launch pad at the company's test site in Moses Lake, Washington, along with the bright blaze ignited by the rocket's hydrogen/oxygen engine during liftoff.
Related: Stoke Space gets closer to 100% reusable rocket with successful 'Hopper' test flight (video)
The test, performed on Sept. 17, was meant to demonstrate several of Hopper's systems and design elements, including its novel hydrogen/oxygen engine, coolant-based heat shield and a propulsion system that maneuvers the rocket by throttling its different engines.
While the spacecraft didn't directly experience the heat from hypersonic reentry to Earth's atmosphere during its test flight, it has successfully operated at 100% of the expected heat load in a simulated environment, bringing the company one step closer towards developing fully reusable rockets.
"This test was the last test in our Hopper technology demonstration program. We successfully completed all of the planned objectives," the company said in a statement announcing the successful test launch. "We've also proven that our novel approach to robust and rapidly reusable space vehicles is technically sound, and we've obtained an incredible amount of data that will enable us to confidently evolve the vehicle design from a technology demonstrator to a reliable reusable space vehicle."
Following the successful test of the second stage rocket, Stoke Space will now shift its focus to developing a reusable first stage in order to reach the company's goal of building a 100% reusable rocket with a turnaround time of just 24 hours.
Paul Sutter
Thu, October 19, 2023
This illustration shows one possible scenario for the hot, rocky exoplanet called 55 Cancri e, which is nearly two times as wide as Earth. New data from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope show that the planet has extreme temperature swings.
The first super-Earth astronomers ever discovered has given off strange signals for nearly two decades, and scientists may have finally figured out why.
Volcanoes on this hellish world periodically open up and spew hot gas that forms an atmosphere, only for that atmosphere to burn off and leave the planet bald again, a new study suggests. Testing that theory will involve training the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the strange exoplanet.
The planet, 55 Cancri e, is a rocky world about eight times as massive as our planet and was discovered in 2004 around 40 light-years from Earth.
Related: 32 jaw-dropping images from the James Webb Space Telescope
The planet is so close to its parent star, at less than 2% of the distance between Earth and the sun, that it makes a complete orbit in just 17 hours. This sets up some rather extreme conditions on the planet that have defied explanation.
Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the planet, as pointed out in a paper accepted in September to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is the nature of its transit signal. This is the light visible from Earth when 55 Cancri e crosses across the face of its parent star, making a tiny eclipse, and the light visible when the planet passes behind its star.
Sometimes, when 55 Cancri e passes behind its star, no visible light comes from the planet itself, while other times the planet emits a strong visible light signal. In infrared light, there's always a signal, though that signal varies in strength.
Observations of that infrared light with the Spitzer Space Telescope indicated that the day side of the planet experienced exceptionally scorching temperatures of well over 4,400 degrees Fahrenheit (2,427 degrees Celsius), while the night side had cooler, but still hellish, temperatures of around 2,060 F (1127 C).
In the new study, the authors hypothesize that the planet's proximity to its star is causing it to outgas, meaning that giant volcanoes and thermal vents open up, spewing hot carbon-rich elements into the atmosphere. But the planet can't hold on to that atmosphere for long due to the extreme heat, and this gas eventually gets blown away, leaving the planet bare until the outgassing begins again.
Unlike most planets, the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e is unstable. The outgassing process tries to bulk up the atmosphere, while the extreme radiation and solar wind from the star blow it away. But these two processes are not in balance, leading to the situation where sometimes the planet has an atmosphere, and other times it doesn't.
The researchers believe this imbalance in the planetary atmosphere can explain the strange transit signals. When the planet is in its atmosphere-less "bald" phase, no visible light comes from the planet's atmosphere, because there isn't one, but the planet's hot surface still emits infrared light. When the atmosphere puffs up, both the visible light and all the radiation coming from the surface show up in the transit signal.
While this is just a hypothesis, JWST offers a way to test it. By measuring the pressure and temperature of the planet's atmosphere, scientists could determine whether an atmosphere is always present.
Fact Check: NASA Predicted Future Collision of ‘Large Asteroid’ With Earth?
Madison Dapcevich
Wed, October 18, 2023
NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Claim:
A NASA study predicted the future probability that a large asteroid named "Bennu" could collide with Earth.
Rating:
Context:
A 2021 NASA study did indeed determine the probability of Bennu, a large asteroid heavily studied that year, coming into contact with Earth by the year 2300. The report said the likelihood was “very low,” adding that chances equate to 1 in 1,750, or .057%
Claims that NASA predicted a “large asteroid could smash into Earth in 159 years” popped up in corners of the internet in September 2023 after findings originally published in 2021 resurfaced. The study in question, which is genuine and credible, determined the likelihood that "Bennu," a large and intensively explored asteroid, would collide with the planet.
But headlines published by several media outlets overly dramatized the study to suggest that such a collision may be more likely than anticipated, including one seen in a post on X below:
(Screengrab/X)
The study cited in news coverage, like that above, was initially published in 2021. In it, researchers described, among other topics, the extremely low probability of asteroid Bennu colliding with Earth.
While it’s technically true that Bennu could “smash into Earth in the next 159 years,” as some media outlets reported in 2023, such likelihood was determined to be “very low,” wrote NASA, adding that the chances of collision equate to 1 in 1,750, or .057%. (The researchers also identified Sept. 24, 2182, as the "most significant single date in terms of a potential impact, with an impact probability of 1 in 2,700, or about 0.037%.")
Although such headlines were somewhat fear-mongering and missing important context, we’ve nonetheless rated this claim as “True.”
First discovered in 1999, Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid that passes near the planet every six years, deemed an important target of study during NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to collect information about its size, shape, mass, and composition.
A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Icarus on Nov. 15, 2021, titled, “Ephemeris and hazard assessment for near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu based on OSIRIS-REx data,” set out to determine the likelihood that Bennu could come into contact with Earth.
Along with information about its spin and orbital trajectory, all together, this information helped inform the study researchers about the potential for future collision with Earth. According to a news release issued by NASA on Aug. 11, 2021:
In 2135, asteroid Bennu will make a close approach with Earth. Although the near-Earth object will not pose a danger to our planet at that time, scientists must understand Bennu’s exact trajectory during that encounter in order to predict how Earth’s gravity will alter the asteroid’s path around the Sun – and affect the hazard of Earth impact.
Although the chances of it hitting Earth are very low, Bennu remains one of the two most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system, along with another asteroid called 1950 DA.
Bennu is expected to make its closest approach to Earth in 2135, at which point it may pass through a “gravitational keyhole,” which is an area in space where the asteroid may be impacted by Earth’s gravitational pull, sending it on a path toward impact.
“The orbital data from this mission helped us better appreciate Bennu’s impact chances over the next couple of centuries and our overall understanding of potentially hazardous asteroids – an incredible result,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator and professor at the University of Arizona, in a news release at the time.
As there is an expected 0.057% impact probability through the year 2300, the researchers concluded that the study highlights the crucial importance of characterizing Bennu’s orbit.
Sources:
Archive, View Author, and Get author RSS feed. NASA Predicts Large Asteroid Could Smash into Earth in 159 Years. 20 Sept. 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/nasa-predicts-large-asteroid-could-smash-into-earth-in-159-years/.
Bennu - NASA Science. https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/101955-bennu/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
Dante Lauretta | Lunar and Planetary Laboratory & Department of Planetary Sciences | The University of Arizona. https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/faculty/dante-lauretta. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
Dapcevich, Madison. “Snopes Tips: Why Care If Research Is ‘Peer-Reviewed’?” Snopes, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/03/30/snopes-tips-why-care-if-research-is-peer-reviewed/.
Farnocchia, Davide, et al. “Ephemeris and Hazard Assessment for Near-Earth Asteroid (101955) Bennu Based on OSIRIS-REx Data.” Icarus, vol. 369, Nov. 2021, p. 114594. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114594.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov. “NASA Spacecraft Provides Insight into Asteroid Bennu’s Future Orbit.” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-provides-insight-into-asteroid-bennus-future-orbit. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
NASA Predicts a Large Asteroid Could Hit Earth in the next Century. 20 Sept. 2023, https://www.audacy.com/wccoradio/news/national/nasa-predicts-a-large-asteroid-could-hit-earth-next-century.
“NASA Predicts Large Asteroid Impact Could Be in Earth’s Future.” KRON4, 19 Sept. 2023, https://www.kron4.com/news/national/nasa-predicts-large-asteroid-impact-could-be-in-earths-future/.
OSIRIS-REx Sheds Light on Hazardous Asteroid Bennu. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb9IL8AqrGA. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
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NASA releases new image of Earth taken from space during annular solar eclipse: See the stunning shot
Brittany Kasko
Thu, October 19, 2023
The eclipse was captured from space — it shows North America completely covered in darkness.
A new image from NASA shows a recent moment when millions of Americans stopped to check out the sun — using proper precautions to protect their eyes, of course.
An annular solar eclipse occurred on Oct. 14 and Americans across the country were in the direct line of crossing.
NASA released an image of the Earth just as the moon was passing in front of the sun.
This moment, also known as an annular solar eclipse, was captured when the moon’s shadow crossed North America.
The image was acquired by NASA’s EPIC imager, which is aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory — a joint NASA, NOAA and U.S. Air Force satellite, as NASA reported.
The picture was taken at a point between the sun and the Earth, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, according to NASA.
BLACK HOLES EXPLAINED: WHY THEY'RE SOME OF THE STRANGEST OBJECTS IN SPACE
The image captured the moon at or near its furthest distance from Earth — with NASA noting that it makes the moon look smaller in the sky than it really is.
The map shows the dark path of annularity that occurred on Oct. 14, 2023, according to NASA.
The annular eclipse is sometimes referred to as the "ring of fire," as it can create a "sliver of sun in the shape of a ring" for those who are in the right place at the right time, as National Geographic editor and space expert Allie Yang told Fox News Digital ahead of the occurrence.
The significance with this particular annular eclipse was that the path crossed the U.S. — something that hasn’t happened since 2012, according to Yang.
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NASA reported that the October 2023 eclipse began around 9:13 Pacific Daylight Time in Oregon before moving southeast.
Annular solar eclipses (one seen here in 2010 in Qingdao, China) are special because the moon appears smaller than the sun when they overlap, creating a "ring of fire" at the right time and place.
The eclipse itself was visible in the U.S. — specifically in the states of Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, parts of California, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona.
The full eclipse shadow from the moon took place at 11:58 a.m. Central Daylight Time on Oct. 14, 2023, and was visible by those using specific eyewear.
The next scheduled occurrence in the U.S. is on June 21, 2039 — but a total solar eclipse will "darken skies" from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024, as NASA noted.
Fox News Digital's Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.
NASA's Juno Reveals Hellish Landscape of Jupiter's Moon Io in Latest Flyby
Passant Rabie
Thu, October 19, 2023
Jupiter’s Moon Io in the latest picture taken by the Juno spacecraft.
After years of capturing the massive world of Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft has recently turned its attention to its Jovian moons. During a close flyby of Jupiter’s spookiest moon, Juno imaged the charred surface of a volcanic world caught in a haunting gravitational tug.
This week, NASA shared new images taken by the Juno spacecraft during its flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io on October 15. The images reveal an ominous view of the most volcanically active world in the solar system, which has clearly been through a lot over the past 4.5 billion years.
This is perhaps the clearest view we’ve seen of Io as the Juno spacecraft inches its way closer to the moon. The surface of the moon is mangled by hundreds of volcanoes and lakes of molten silicate lava, which is why the moon appears burnt as though it had been through enormous torment.
The moon is wedged between Jupiter’s immense gravitational force, as well as the gravitational tug of its sister moons Europa and Ganymede. As a result, the moon is constantly being stretched and squeezed, which contributes to its volcanic activity.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been studying the Jovian system since 2016, observed Io during previous flybys in May and July. Juno also captured a cozy family photo of Jupiter and Io in September, revealing the gas giant and its moon side by side. The next time Juno approaches the volcanic world will be on December 30, as well as February 1, 2024, and then again on September 20, 2024, approaching the haunting world with caution to gather more data on its activity.
As the innermost of Jupiter’s large moons, Io is the main source of most of the charged particles in the planet’s magnetosphere, creating a donut-shaped cloud of ions and electrons that surround Jupiter. The cloud, known as Io Plasma Torus, is formed when atmospheric gases escaping from Io are ionized.
During upcoming flybys, scientists from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will use the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to simultaneously observe the Jovian moon from a distance.
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