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The James Webb Space Telescope, upon turning its infrared gaze on the universe in July 2022, captured stunning images that surpassed astronomers’ expectations. Now, the space observatory has unveiled a never-before-seen feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), researchers took a series of images of Jupiter 10 hours apart, applying four different filters to detect changes in the planet’s atmosphere. Infrared light, invisible to the human eye, reveals celestial features previously unseen, such as megaclusters of young stars and unexpected pairs of planetlike objects.
An astonishing discovery reveals a high-speed jet stream in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere, an atmospheric layer about 25 miles (40 kilometers) above the clouds. Spanning over 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide and moving at 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour), this jet stream over the planet’s equator is twice as fast as the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane on Earth.
The study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, sheds light on the dynamic interactions within Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere. Ricardo Hueso, lead author of the study and a physics lecturer at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, expressed his surprise: “This is something that totally surprised us. What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation.”
Jupiter’s Astonishing Weather
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is composed of gases, making it starkly different from Earth. However, like our planet, Jupiter has a layered atmosphere that contains turbulent layers with intricate weather patterns. Century-spanning storms like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and clouds made of icy ammonia have been observed in these layers.
While previous missions and telescopes have delved deeper into Jupiter’s swirling clouds using different wavelengths of light, Webb is uniquely positioned to study the higher-altitude layers, approximately 15 to 30 miles (25 to 50 kilometers) above the cloud tops, and reveal previously indistinct details.
Imke de Pater, study coauthor and professor emeritus of astronomy, Earth, and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, stated, “Even though various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft like NASA’s Juno and Cassini, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed the Jovian system’s changing weather patterns, Webb has already provided new findings on Jupiter’s rings, satellites, and its atmosphere.”
Revelation of the Jet Stream
Webb’s winds at high altitudes were compared with the lower layers’ winds detected by Hubble, and changes in wind speed were tracked. Both space observatories played a vital role in detecting the jet stream. Webb revealed small cloud features while Hubble provided a glimpse of the equatorial atmosphere, including storms unrelated to the jet. Together, these telescopes offered a comprehensive view of Jupiter’s complex atmosphere and the processes occurring within its layers.
Michael Wong, planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and study coauthor who led the associated Hubble observations, highlighted the ability to observe the rapid development of storms using the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble: “We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop.”
Future observations of Jupiter with the Webb telescope are expected to uncover more insights into the jet stream and potential variations in its speed and altitude over time, leading to further surprising discoveries. Leigh Fletcher, study coauthor and professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, expressed excitement: “It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022. It’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”
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