Hubble's sharp images track clouds and measure the winds, storms, and vortices, in addition to monitoring the size, shape, and behavior of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) storm. Hubble follows as the GRS continues shrinking in size and its winds are speeding up. OPAL data recently measured how often mysterious dark ovals — visible only at ultraviolet wavelengths — appeared in the "polar hoods" of stratospheric haze. Unlike Earth, Jupiter is only inclined three degrees on its axis (Earth is 23.5 degrees). Seasonal changes might not be expected, except that Jupiter's distance from the Sun varies by about 5% over its 12-year-long orbit, and so OPAL closely monitors the atmosphere for seasonal effects. Another Hubble advantage is that ground-based observatories can't continuously view Jupiter for two Jupiter rotations, because that adds up to 20 hours. During that time, an observatory on the ground would have gone into daytime and Jupiter would no longer be visible until the next evening.
These two views of Jupiter showcase the wealth of information provided by the spectral filters on the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) science instrument. At left, the RGB composite is created using three filters at wavelengths similar to the colors seen by the human eye. At right, the wavelength bounds are widened beyond the visible range to extend just into the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared regimes. Humans cannot perceive these extended wavelengths, but some animals (such as mantis shrimp, whose eyes function similarly to certain sensors on some NASA missions) are able to detect infrared and ultraviolet light. The result is a vivid disk that shows UV-absorbing lofty hazes as orange (over the poles and in three large storms, including the Great Red Spot), and freshly-formed ice as white (compact storm plumes just north of the equator). Astronomers, including the OPAL team, use these filters (and others not shown here) to study differences in cloud thickness, altitude, and chemical makeup.
For more information: science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-celebrates-...
Image credit: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Find us on X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Tags: NASA Hubble ESA Hubble Space Telescope telescope space telescope cosmos universe space cosmic astronomy Jupiter
Asteroid P/2010 A2 puzzled astronomers in 2010 with its comet-like tail.
The object appeared so unusual in ground-based telescope images that discretionary time on the Hubble Space Telescope was used to take a close-up look. This picture, captured on January 29, 2010, shows a bizarre X pattern of filamentary structures near the point-like nucleus of the object and trailing streamers of dust.
The complex structure suggests that the object was the product of a head-on collision between two asteroids traveling five times faster than a rifle bullet (5 kilometers per second). Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never before been seen.
The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the 460-foot-diameter nucleus. Some of the filaments are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originate from tiny, unseen parent bodies. An impact origin would also be consistent with the absence of gas in spectra recorded using ground-based telescopes.
At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles (300 million km) from the Sun and 90 million miles (140 million km) from Earth.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2010-07
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Tags: Hubble Space Telescope Hubble solar system NASA astronomy space cosmos asteroid P/2010 A2 x-shaped asteroid
The Hubble Space Telescope was used to observe Saturn on June 6, 2018, when Saturn was only approximately 1.36 billion miles from Earth, nearly as close to us as it ever gets.
Saturn’s magnificent ring system is near its maximum tilt toward Earth (which was in 2017). Though all of the gas giants in our solar system boast rings, Saturn’s are the largest and most spectacular, stretching out eight times the radius of the planet.
Saturn’s colors come from hydrocarbon hazes above the ammonia crystals in the upper cloud layers. Unseen lower-level clouds are either ammonium hydrosulfide or water. The planet’s banded structure is caused by the winds and the clouds at different altitudes.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-29
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC) and the OPAL Team, and J. DePasquale (STScI)
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Tags: Saturn Hubble Space Telescope Hubble solar system NASA astronomy space cosmos planet planets rings
This Hubble Space Telescope snapshot of the dynamic blue-green planet Neptune reveals a monstrous dark storm (top center) and the emergence of a smaller dark spot nearby (top right). The giant vortex, which is wider than the Atlantic Ocean, was traveling south toward certain doom by atmospheric forces at the equator when it suddenly made a U-turn and began drifting back northward.
The large storm, which is 4,600 miles across, is the fourth dark spot Hubble has observed on Neptune since 1993. Two other dark storms were discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989 as it flew by the distant planet, but they had disappeared before Hubble could observe them. Since then, only Hubble has had the sharpness and sensitivity in visible light to track these elusive features, which have sequentially appeared and then faded away over a duration of about two years each. Hubble uncovered this latest storm in September 2018.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and L.A. Sromovsky and P.M. Fry (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/dark-storm-on-neptune-r...
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Tags: Neptune NASA Hubble Space Telescope planet space science Solar System
Looming like a giant flying saucer in our outer solar system, Saturn puts on a show as the planet and its magnificent ring system nod majestically over the course of its 29-year journey around the Sun. These Hubble Space Telescope images, captured from 1996 to 2000, show Saturn's rings open up from just past edge-on to nearly fully open as it moves from autumn towards winter in its northern hemisphere.
Saturn's equator is tilted relative to its orbit by 27 degrees, very similar to Earth's 23-degree tilt. As Saturn moves along its orbit, first one hemisphere then the other is tilted toward the Sun. This cyclical change causes seasons on Saturn, just as the changing orientation of Earth's tilt causes seasons on our planet. The first image in this sequence, in the lower left, was taken soon after the autumnal equinox in Saturn's northern hemisphere (which is the same as the spring equinox in its southern hemisphere). By the final image in the sequence, in the upper right, the tilt is nearing its extreme, or winter solstice in the northern hemisphere (summer solstice in the southern hemisphere).
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2001-15
Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);
Acknowledgment: R.G. French (Wellesley College), J. Cuzzi (NASA/Ames), L. Dones (SwRI), and J. Lissauer (NASA/Ames)
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Tags: HST Hubble Space Telescope Hubble solar system NASA astronomy space cosmos Saturn planet planets Hubble Heritage rings