NASA's Webb telescope finds new feature in Jupiter's atmosphere

NASA’s Webb telescope finds new feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere

Webb Telescope finds high-speed jet stream on Jupiter
The discovery provides insight into Jupiter's atmosphere interactions
The jet stream moves at 320 mph, 25 miles above clouds

Updated: Oct 21, 2023 / 05:09 PM CDT

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 12-21 miles (20-35 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, researchers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.

(NewsNation) — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new high-speed jet stream, which spans more than 3,000 miles wide sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

“This is something that totally surprised us,” said Ricardo Hueso of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, lead author on the paper describing the findings. “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.”

The discovery of this jet provides valuable insights into the interactions between the various layers within Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere, according to NASA.

The newly discovered jet stream travels at about 320 miles per hour which is twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane on Earth. It is located around 25 miles above the clouds, in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.

The Early Release Science program – jointly led by Imke de Pater from the University of California, Berkeley and Thierry Fouchet from the Observatory of Paris — aimed to capture images of Jupiter at 10-hour intervals, equivalent to one Jupiter day, using four different filters. Each filter had a unique capability to identify changes in small features at various altitudes within Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Although Jupiter and Earth differ in numerous aspects – Jupiter being a gas giant and Earth a temperate, rocky world – both planets possess layered atmospheres. Other missions have observed infrared, visible, radio, and ultraviolet light wavelengths, focusing on the lower and deeper layers of the planet’s atmosphere where massive storms and ammonia ice clouds are found.