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Jupiter
image
Caption: This full disk view of Jupiter was obtained on 21 April 2014 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It shows the prominent great red spot, a gigantic cyclone. Cloud ribbons cover the surface, whose colours stem from gases like ammonia and other chemical compounds.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Gas Giant , Giant Planet , Great Red Spot , Jupiter , Outer Planets
Categories:
Solar System
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
167.16 kB)
Jupiter's Rotation, by Vishal Sharma, India
video
Created for the OAE
Caption: Third place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Galilean moons: Jupiter’s Rotation, by Vishal Sharma, India.
This time-lapse beautifully shows the rotation of Jupiter and the passage of two Galilean moons on the right side of the frame. Jupiter completes one rotation in just under 10 hours and we see as the Great Red Spot makes its way from left to right. The two moons travel a noticeable fraction of their orbit in this short time. This image was taken in 2020 in the North of India.
Credit: Vishal Sharma/IAU OAE
Glossary Terms:
Galilean Satellites , Gas Giant , Jupiter , Moons , Orbit , Outer Planets , Planet
Categories:
Solar System
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
This file on Zenodo ( video 1.54 MB)
Jupiter, Io and its shadow, by Ralf Burkart, Germany
video
Created for the OAE
Caption: First place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Galilean moons.
This time-lapse of Jupiter taken in 2017 from Germany beautifully illustrates the transit of one of the Galilean moons, Io, in front of Jupiter. As this is simply a moon casting a shadow on a planet it is equivalent to a lunar eclipse on Earth observed from further away. While the shadow of the moon is clearly visible from the beginning, it might be difficult to spot the moon itself against the background of the beautiful atmospheric bands of Jupiter the first time the video is seen. Watching it repeatedly allows appreciating the rapid motion and rotation in this fantastic observation.
Credit: Ralf Burkart/IAU OAE
Glossary Terms:
Galilean Satellites , Gas Giant , Io , Jupiter , Moons , Orbit , Outer Planets , Planet , Transit
Categories:
Solar System
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
This file on Zenodo ( video 12.64 MB)
Comet Shoemaker-Levy After Crossing Jupiter's Roche Limit
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Caption: This panoramic image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. This comet was discovered in 1993 as the series of fragments you see here. These fragments were orbiting Jupiter. It is thought that at some point in the previous few decades the whole, unfragmented comet had been gravitationally captured by Jupiter. Then in 1992 the comet passed within Jupiter’s Roche limit.
Astronomical objects exert gravitational forces on each other. The closer one is to an object, the larger the force. Astronomical objects have a real physical size and thus the gravitational force exerted on the object will vary across the object, the side of an object closer to another object will feel a stronger gravitational force from that other object than the more distant side. The gravitational stretching distorts the object. This gravitational stretching force is known as the tidal force. When an object is close enough to a large body like Jupiter, the object will feel such a large tidal stretching force that it will overcome the internal gravitational force holding the object together, ripping it to shreds. The distance from the larger body within which this occurs is known as the Roche limit.
When Shoemaker–Levy 9 crossed Jupiter's Roche limit in 1992, the tidal force pulled the comet into separate fragments. Here we see these fragments in a chain as they orbited Jupiter in May 1994. Later in July 1994 the comet fragment plunged into Jupiter’s atmosphere over the course of a week in a spectacular series of impacts. This event provided scientists with a rare opportunity to witness an impact unfolding in real time.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Weaver and E. Smith (STScI)
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Roche Limit , Tidal Force
License: Public Domain Public Domain icons
File
( image
507.00 kB)
Jupiter, Venus, Moon Conjunction
image
Created for the OAE
Caption: Honorable mention in the 2023 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category of Still images taken exclusively with smartphones/mobile devices.
Captured with a smartphone in February 2023, over the skies of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, this photograph offers a glimpse into a conjunction, an enthralling astronomical phenomenon that occurs when two or more celestial objects are seen in close proximity in the sky from our perspective, despite the objects not being physically near to each other. In this image, the brilliance of Jupiter (top), the allure of Venus (middle), and the familiar glow of our Moon (bottom) dance together against a backdrop of delicate clouds and a treeline silhouette, making it a moment worth treasuring.
Credit: Joslynn Appel/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)
Glossary Terms:
Conjunction , Jupiter , Moon , Venus
Tags:
astrophotography
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
This file on Zenodo ( image 132.00 kB)
