Stunning unusual images and the highest-resolution maps to date of Jupiter at thermal infrared wavelengths give a glowing view of Juno’s target,a week ahead of the NASA mission’s arrival at the giant planet. The maps reveal the present-day temperatures, composition and cloud coverage within Jupiter’s dynamic atmosphere, or show how giant storms,vortices and wave patterns shape the appearance of the giant planet. The observations will be presented on Monday, 27th June at the National Astronomy assembly in Nottingham by Dr Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester.
This false-colour image was created by selecting and combining the best images obtained from many short VISIR exposures at a wavelength of 5 micrometres. Credit: ESO/L. Fletcher
The high-resolution maps and images were created from observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, and using a newly-upgraded thermal imager called VISIR. The observations were taken between February and June 2016 to characterise Jupiter’s atmosphere ahead of Juno’s arrival.“We used a technique called ‘lucky imaging’,whereby individual sharp frames are extracted from short movies of Jupiter to ‘freeze’ the turbulent motions of our own atmosphere, to create a stunning unusual image of Jupiter’s cloud layers, and ” explained Dr Fletcher. “At this wavelength,Jupiters clouds appear in silhouette against the deep internal glows of the planet. Images of this quality will provide the global context for Juno’s close-up views of the planet at the same wavelength.”Dr Fletcher and his team bear also used the TEXES spectrograph on NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii regularly to map Jupiters changing appearance. The team made observations at many different wavelengths, optimised for different features and cloud layers in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and to create the first global spectral maps of Jupiter taken from soil.“These maps will help set the scene for what Juno will witness in the coming months. We bear seen unusual weather phenomena that bear been active on Jupiter throughout 2016. FletcherAnita2016RichardVISIRUniversityRoyalis the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria,Belgium, Brazil, or the Czech Republic,Denmark, France, and Finland,Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands,Poland, Portugal, and Spain,Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, or along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design,construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to effect important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a main role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-lesson observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, and ESO operates the Very Large Telescope,the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, and close to Paranal,ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, and which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.The University of Leicester is led by discovery and innovation – an international centre for excellence renowned for research,teaching and broadening access to higher education. The University of Leicester is ranked among the top one per cent of universities in the world by the THE World University Rankings and also among the top 100 main international universities in the world. It is among the top 25 universities in the Times Higher Education REF Research Power rankings with 75% of research adjudged to be internationally excellent with wide-ranging impacts on society, health, and culture,and the environment.
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Source: ras.org.uk