Fri 29 October 2021:
NASA announced on Thursday that new results from the Juno mission of Jupiter show the massive planet wrapped in zones and belts of whirling clouds, towering storms, and cyclones spinning in opposite directions, which scientists hope will help them understand how the solar system formed eons ago.
In a televised press conference, Juno primary designer and principal investigator Scott Bolton stated that Jupiter’s immense size indicates that it was the first planet to form.
“When we study Jupiter, we’re taking a look at the very early part of the solar system. How did planets form? Where did we come from? How are solar systems made?” Bolton said.
While the presentation provided a visual impression akin to a Vincent van Gogh painting, it will likely give scientists time to assimilate the data and generate new theories on planet creation.
By providing a three-dimensional view of Jupiter’s atmosphere largely hidden between a layer of clouds, Juno found storms extending dozens of miles skyward and one storm over the planet’s iconic red spot 200 miles tall.
According to NASA scientists, Juno measured the spot’s depth to be around 300 miles deep.
Images showed cyclones and anticyclones whirling in opposite directions, as well as prominent belts and zones of white and reddish clouds wrapping around the planet like jet streams.
The planet’s north and south poles were both covered in cyclones, with eight in an octagonal configuration in the north and five in a pentagonal pattern in the south.
In 2016, Juno entered an extended orbit around Jupiter’s atmosphere. According to NASA, the photographs and data exhibited were obtained during each of the spacecraft’s 37 laps of the planet thus far.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
