Hubble Just Confirmed The Largest Ocean World In Our Solar System And Its Not On Earth

The Ganymede Ocean is believed to contain more water than Europa's,” says Olivier Witasse, a project scientist working on ESA’s future Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE).

“Six times more water in Ganymede’s ocean than in Earth's ocean, and three times more than Europa.” In March of 2020, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope revealed the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon --larger than Mercury and not much smaller than Mars.

Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and for the search for life, as we know it. “This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, now retired assistant administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in our own solar system. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth.”

Ganymede is our solar system's largest moon and the only one with its own magnetic field. The magnetic field creates aurorae, which are ribbons of bright, hot electrified gas that circle the moon's north and south poles. Ganymede is surrounded by Jupiter's magnetic field due to its proximity. The aurorae on Ganymede vary as Jupiter's magnetic field changes, "rocking" back and forth.

Ganymede's fame is eclipsed by its sister ocean planet, Europa, which is scheduled for flybys by NASA's Europa Clipper mission in the 2020s, just as Saturn's moon, Dione, is perpetually overshadowed by Enceladus and Titan.

Ganymede's cycles of auroral activity on the surface, detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal oscillations in the moon’s magnetic field best explained by the internal heat-generating tidal sloshing of a huge ocean hundreds of kilometers below the surface. JUICE will fly by the moons at distances between 1000 and 200 kilometers, orbiting Ganymede for nine months, with the latter four months at an altitude of about 500 km. While the oceans of Jupiter's moons are likely buried at significant depth below their icy crusts, radar will be able to help piece together clues as to their complex evolution.

For example, it will explore Europa's potentially active regions and be able to distinguish where the composition changes, such as if there are local, shallow reservoirs of water sandwiched between icy layers. It will be able to find 'deflected' subsurface layers, which will help to determine the tectonic history of Ganymede in particular.

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Beams Back The Sharpest Images Of Jupiter—Ever

NASA's Juno probe performed its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5, 2022, analyzing the intricate hues and structure of the giant planet's clouds.

These two photos were generated by citizen scientist Björn Jónsson using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. 

When the raw photograph was acquired, Juno was roughly 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometres) above Jupiter's cloud tops at a latitude of about 50 degrees. The north is rising. At the moment, the spacecraft was flying at around 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometres per hour) relative to the earth.

The first image (on the left) was altered to depict the colours seen by the human eye from Juno's vantage point. Jónsson digitally altered the second image (right) to boost colour saturation and contrast, sharpen small-scale features, and minimise compression artefacts and noise that are frequent in raw photographs. 

This vividly exposes some of Jupiter's most remarkable features, including colour variation due by changes in chemical composition, the three-dimensional character of Jupiter's swirling vortices, and the little, bright "pop-up" clouds that occur in the upper atmosphere.

The raw photos from JunoCam are available for viewing and processing into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. NASA citizen science information can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.

Juno can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. More information about this discovery and other scientific findings may be found at https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.

NASA’s $1 Billion Jupiter Probe Just Sent Back Stunning New Photos Of Jupiter

On October 24, NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft took its ninth series of breathtaking flyby photographs while travelling at more than 130,000 kilometres per hour above Jupiter. 

However, the sun slipped between the massive planet and Earth for more than a week, preventing the spacecraft from broadcasting back its valuable data.

Previous article has been updated.

However, now that the conjunction is finished, new raw image data from Juno's ninth perijove — the spacecraft's high-speed flybys — has flooded in. Researchers made the data available online on Tuesday, and a community of amateurs and pros has been hard at work processing it to produce colourful and breathtaking new images of Jupiter.

“Brand new Jupiter pics from @NASAJuno Perijove 09! What a blimmin' gorgeous/diabolical planet,” Seán Doran, a UK-based graphic artist who regularly processes NASA images, tweeted.

Below are some fresh, close-up images of Jupiter, along with other unbelievable views captured from earlier perijoves.

In the most recent flyby, as with the previous eight, Juno's flyby started over Jupiter's north pole.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran

The spacecraft then swept within a few thousand miles of the gas giant, capturing stunning high-resolution views of its cloud tops.

At its closest approach to Jupiter during each flyby, the robot briefly becomes the fastest human-made object in the solar system, reaching speeds of around 130,000 miles per hour.

Then Juno flew back out into deep space, passing over Jupiter's South Pole on its exit. Churning storms at the poles constantly change their appearance.

Researchers upload the raw data sent by the probe to the mission's website.

There, enthusiasts take the drab, mostly gray image data and process it all into true-to-life color photos.

Many snapshots of Jupiter take on an artistic quality.

Others dazzle with their detail of the planet's thick cloud bands and powerful storms. Jupiter is made up predominantly of hydrogen. The simple, basic gas, a prime ingredient on the sun, accounts for 90 percent of the atmosphere. Nearly 10 percent is composed of helium.

Some of the tempests are large enough to swallow planet Earth — or at least a good chunk of it.

The planet's atmosphere is a turbulent mess of hydrogen and helium gases. The atmosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System. It is mostly made of molecular hydrogen and helium in roughly solar proportions; other chemical compounds are present only in small amounts and include methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water.

There are also traces of molecules like ammonia, methane, sulfur, and water, which give the clouds different colors and properties.

The mixture sometimes creates features that look like faces (as seen on the left in this image).

Other times, shining-white clouds fill up most of a band. With an average temperature of minus 234 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 145 degrees Celsius), Jupiter is frigid even in its warmest weather. Unlike Earth, whose temperature varies as one moves closer to or farther from the equator, Jupiter's temperature depends more on height above the surface.

Many cloud bands have features called chevrons. These atmospheric disturbances blow at several hundreds of miles per hour and sometimes zig-zag through a band, or punch through into others.

In this older view of Jupiter, from Juno's eighth perijove, two cloud bands battle for dominance — one of which contains a swirling storm many times larger than a hurricane on Earth.

The spacecraft will continue to document Jupiter for as long as NASA can keep it going. But not forever.

Massive Object From “Outside” Our Solar System Heading Our Way—10 Things You Should Know

More than 600,000 years ago, the trans-Neptunian object last approached this close.

A new trans-Neptunian object that may be the biggest object ever found in the Oort Cloud has been found by astronomers. Its diameter is estimated to be between 130 and 370 kilometers, and in early 2031, when it will pass between Uranus and Saturn's orbits, the object will make its closest approach to the Sun. The Minor Planet Center's website announced the discovery's news.

Learn all there is to know about the biggest object ever found in the Oort Cloud.

1. Astronomers Gary Bernstein and Pedro Bernardinelli made the discovery of 2014 UN271 by reanalyzing the DES (Dark Energy Survey) database of sky photos from 2014 to 2018.

2. The object was roughly 29 astronomical units away from Earth at the time of its first detection in 2014. Because it takes so long to look for trans-Neptunian objects in DES data, the finding was only announced on June 19, 2021, according to scientists.

3. The object is now 20.2 astronomical units away from the Earth. Its orbit is extended (eccentricity 0.99) and steeply inclined (95.4 degrees) with respect to the ecliptic plane, which results in the previous barycentric aphelion being calculated to be 39,400 astronomical units from the Sun.

The minor planet 2014 UN271, which will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031, is currently located and is in the orbit of what may be the biggest Oort Cloud object to date. 

4. The new value, after getting closer to the Sun, will be 54,600 astronomical units, indicating that 2014 UN271 has entered the inner Oort cloud.

5. 2014 UN271 has an absolute star magnitude of 7.87, which, when paired with an estimated albedo value of 0.01-0.08, results in an object with a diameter that falls between 130 and 370 kilometers.

6. As a result, 2014 UN271 may be a dwarf planet or a trans-Neptunian object that is about as big as the comet C/1729 P1's nucleus.

7. Although no coma was seen in the object between 2014 and 2018, scientists think that 2014 UN271 may start to show comet-like behaviour as it gets closer to the Sun.

the biggest object that scientists have seen in the Oort Cloud. Even if the picture is not as good, 2014 UN271 is still too far away to be seen clearly. Credit: DES Survey / Pedro Bernardinelli

8. The perihelion point, which lies around 10.5 astronomical units from the Sun, will be crossed by 2014 UN271 in the early years of 2031. The small planet's orbital period around the Sun is thought to be roughly 600,000 years, according to astronomers.

9. How lucky that, in our lives, we will see the closest flyby of the greatest Oort Cloud object. In any case, amateur astronomers are unlikely to have the opportunity to see it via conventional telescopes. The item won't be very brilliant, according to experts. The scientists anticipate that they will be able to view it with the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope at the same time.

10. In regards to the DES survey, scientists pledge to provide a fresh comprehensive catalog of trans-Neptunian objects found in the first four years of observations, including 2014 UN271, in the following three months.

Sources:

• The International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center. (n.d.). 2014 UN271 MPEC 2021-M53.

• Irving, M. (2021, June 21). Extremely eccentric minor planet to visit inner solar system this decade. Atlas New.

• NASA. (n.d.). JPL Small-Body Database Browser.

• O’Callaghan, J. (2021, June 21). An enormous ‘mega comet’ is flying into our solar system. New Scientist.

• Robitzski, D. (2021, June 21). A Tiny Planet Will Soon Drift Nearer to Earth Than Since Caveman Times. Futurism.

NASA’s $1 Billion Jupiter Probe Just Sent Back Stunning New Photos Of Jupiter

On October 24, NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft took its ninth series of breathtaking flyby photographs while travelling at more than 130,000 kilometres per hour above Jupiter. However, the sun slipped between the massive planet and Earth for more than a week, preventing the spacecraft from broadcasting back its valuable data.

Previous article has been updated.

However, now that the conjunction is finished, new raw image data from Juno's ninth perijove — the spacecraft's high-speed flybys — has flooded in. Researchers made the data available online on Tuesday, and a community of amateurs and pros has been hard at work processing it to produce colourful and breathtaking new images of Jupiter.

“Brand new Jupiter pics from @NASAJuno Perijove 09! What a blimmin' gorgeous/diabolical planet,” Seán Doran, a UK-based graphic artist who regularly processes NASA images, tweeted.

 

Below are some fresh, close-up images of Jupiter, along with other unbelievable views captured from earlier perijoves.

In the most recent flyby, as with the previous eight, Juno's flyby started over Jupiter's north pole.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran

The spacecraft then swept within a few thousand miles of the gas giant, capturing stunning high-resolution views of its cloud tops.

At its closest approach to Jupiter during each flyby, the robot briefly becomes the fastest human-made object in the solar system, reaching speeds of around 130,000 miles per hour.

Then Juno flew back out into deep space, passing over Jupiter's South Pole on its exit. Churning storms at the poles constantly change their appearance.

Researchers upload the raw data sent by the probe to the mission's website.

There, enthusiasts take the drab, mostly gray image data and process it all into true-to-life color photos.

Many snapshots of Jupiter take on an artistic quality.

Others dazzle with their detail of the planet's thick cloud bands and powerful storms. Jupiter is made up predominantly of hydrogen. The simple, basic gas, a prime ingredient on the sun, accounts for 90 percent of the atmosphere. Nearly 10 percent is composed of helium.

Some of the tempests are large enough to swallow planet Earth — or at least a good chunk of it.

The planet's atmosphere is a turbulent mess of hydrogen and helium gases. The atmosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System. It is mostly made of molecular hydrogen and helium in roughly solar proportions; other chemical compounds are present only in small amounts and include methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water.

There are also traces of molecules like ammonia, methane, sulfur, and water, which give the clouds different colors and properties.

The mixture sometimes creates features that look like faces (as seen on the left in this image).

Other times, shining-white clouds fill up most of a band. With an average temperature of minus 234 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 145 degrees Celsius), Jupiter is frigid even in its warmest weather. Unlike Earth, whose temperature varies as one moves closer to or farther from the equator, Jupiter's temperature depends more on height above the surface.

Many cloud bands have features called chevrons. These atmospheric disturbances blow at several hundreds of miles per hour and sometimes zig-zag through a band, or punch through into others.

In this older view of Jupiter, from Juno's eighth perijove, two cloud bands battle for dominance — one of which contains a swirling storm many times larger than a hurricane on Earth.

The spacecraft will continue to document Jupiter for as long as NASA can keep it going. But not forever.

BREAKING🚨: Jupiter is now at its closest to Earth since 1963, and it won't be this close for another 107 years

There's a once-in-a-lifetime encounter happening right now for everyone who is captivated by things in the sky – and you won't want to miss it. It's not a star or a meteor; it's something far more unusual: Jupiter. Here's all you need to know, including when you should mark your calendar.

What is Jupiter doing in September?

It's not uncommon to see additional planets in the night sky. But we usually observe them through a telescope. However, we're in for a special surprise this month. According to EarthSky.org, Jupiter will be closer to Earth than it has been in more than 70 years.

Jupiter will rise in the Eastern sky after sunset this month and will be visible until just before sunrise. And because it's so close to Earth, we'll be able to see it much better.

When the Earth is between Jupiter and the Sun, Jupiter is said to be in "opposition." When a planet is opposed to Earth, it appears larger than life.

According to EarthSky, this occurs because the planet's complete disc is lighted, the Earth is as close to it as it will ever be, and the planet is visible for longer because it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. This creates the ideal conditions for the finest Jupiter look in 70 years.

In September, how can you view Jupiter?

For the entire month of September, you can catch a glimpse of Jupiter after sunset.

"Look to the eastern sky about two hours after sunset over the next few weeks, and you easily see bright Jupiter rising in the eastern sky," Forbes explains.

In September, when is the ideal time to observe Jupiter?

While the planet will be visible throughout the month, EarthSky recommends checking it out on September 26 if you're short on time.

Jupiter will come closest to Earth on September 26th, when it will be "367 million miles or 591 million kilometres or 33 light minutes from Earth," so mark that day on your calendars.

TimeandDate can help you determine the optimum time to observe Jupiter from where you live.

The next magnificent planetary sky show will be on December 8, 2022, when Mars is in opposition.

Reference(s): EarthSky

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Beams Back The Sharpest Images Of Jupiter—Ever

NASA's Juno probe performed its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5, 2022, analyzing the intricate hues and structure of the giant planet's clouds.

These two photos were generated by citizen scientist Björn Jónsson using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. When the raw photograph was acquired, Juno was roughly 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometres) above Jupiter's cloud tops at a latitude of about 50 degrees. The north is rising. At the moment, the spacecraft was flying at around 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometres per hour) relative to the earth.

The first image (on the left) was altered to depict the colours seen by the human eye from Juno's vantage point. Jónsson digitally altered the second image (right) to boost colour saturation and contrast, sharpen small-scale features, and minimise compression artefacts and noise that are frequent in raw photographs. This vividly exposes some of Jupiter's most remarkable features, including colour variation due by changes in chemical composition, the three-dimensional character of Jupiter's swirling vortices, and the little, bright "pop-up" clouds that occur in the upper atmosphere.

The raw photos from JunoCam are available for viewing and processing into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. NASA citizen science information can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.

Juno can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. More information about this discovery and other scientific findings may be found at https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.

Hubble Just Confirmed The Largest Ocean World In Our Solar System And Its Not On Earth

The Ganymede Ocean is believed to contain more water than Europa's,” says Olivier Witasse, a project scientist working on ESA’s future Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE). “Six times more water in Ganymede’s ocean than in Earth's ocean, and three times more than Europa.” In March of 2020, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope revealed the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon --larger than Mercury and not much smaller than Mars.

Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and for the search for life, as we know it. “This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, now retired assistant administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in our own solar system. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth.”

Ganymede is our solar system's largest moon and the only one with its own magnetic field. The magnetic field creates aurorae, which are ribbons of bright, hot electrified gas that circle the moon's north and south poles. Ganymede is surrounded by Jupiter's magnetic field due to its proximity. The aurorae on Ganymede vary as Jupiter's magnetic field changes, "rocking" back and forth.

Ganymede's fame is eclipsed by its sister ocean planet, Europa, which is scheduled for flybys by NASA's Europa Clipper mission in the 2020s, just as Saturn's moon, Dione, is perpetually overshadowed by Enceladus and Titan.

Ganymede's cycles of auroral activity on the surface, detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal oscillations in the moon’s magnetic field best explained by the internal heat-generating tidal sloshing of a huge ocean hundreds of kilometers below the surface. JUICE will fly by the moons at distances between 1000 and 200 kilometers, orbiting Ganymede for nine months, with the latter four months at an altitude of about 500 km. While the oceans of Jupiter's moons are likely buried at significant depth below their icy crusts, radar will be able to help piece together clues as to their complex evolution.

For example, it will explore Europa's potentially active regions and be able to distinguish where the composition changes, such as if there are local, shallow reservoirs of water sandwiched between icy layers. It will be able to find 'deflected' subsurface layers, which will help to determine the tectonic history of Ganymede in particular.

This Video of Europa and Io Orbiting Jupiter Is Not Fake; In Fact, It Is 100% Real

A time-lapse of Jupiter's moons Europa and Io orbiting the gas giant has lately gone viral on the Internet due to its stunning beauty. Many users have argued that the time-lapse isn't real because it's so stunning.

While it is vital to be sceptical of photographs uploaded online, especially when phoney images are shared as real in exchange for clicks, we are pleased to announce that the lovely short film is 100% genuine. Snopes also conducted a fact check, which can be found here.

Kevin M.Gill created this fantastic video. M.Gill works as a NASA-JPL engineer specialising in planetary image processing. He made this animation by merging numerous photos taken by the Cassini space probe during its 2001 visit to Jupiter.(Yes, none of these photos or video segments were generated using a computer.)

Io and Europa can be seen circling Jupiter in the video. One of the video's suspicions stems from the fact that Io, which is closer to Jupiter, appears to orbit at a slower rate than Europa, which is further away. There is, however, a straightforward explanation for this.

NASA’s $1 Billion Spacecraft Beams Back the Sharpest Images of Jupiter—Ever

Juno flew by Jupiter in March of 2017 skimming 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops while traveling about 129,000 mph (208,000 km/h) relative to the planet, NASA officials said.  Hold my coffee, I can’t stop staring at the images. Is that even real?

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is the first solar-powered space probe sent out to study our solar system’s largest planet—Jupiter. Juno’s mission is to orbit the gas giant in polar orbit and study its structure while mapping its gravity and magnetic field. Studying Jupiter will allow experts to better understand large planets discovered across the cosmos.

So far—the US$1 billion spacecraft has managed to take an image of Jupiter’s poles for the first time, it has come across really bizarre cloud formations, heard and recorded mysterious auroras, and scanned deep into the planet’s thick cloud tops, doing what no other spacecraft has done before. We’re proud of you Juno.

And while science is the most important thing on the mission, NASA’s spacecraft are known for being really good photographers.

Just as the Cassini spacecraft recently beamed back unprecedented images of Saturn, Juno also has its fair share of breathtaking images—is it time we should award a Pulitzer Prize for Photography to one of those spacecraft?

Juno is the ninth probe from Earth sent to Jupiter, and only the second probe to orbit the planet, but it is the first probe to snap unprecedently beautiful images of the gas giant.

Hold my coffee, I can’t stop staring at the images. Is that even real?

(Details are updated.)