New Jovian Cloud Feature
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Text, News From The Universe. July 20
New Jovian Cloud Feature.
Photo shows Jupiter with a small spot labeled Clyde's Spot.
Text, Amateur astronomer Clyde Foster has discovered a new feature in Jupiter's clouds.
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The feature was visible in images captured by astronomers just hours earlier.
Astronomers decided to use NASA's Juno spacecraft to take a closer look.
Raw data from Juno was processed to create this image, by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill.
Image, close-up of roiling white clouds on Jupiter's surface. The Great Red Spot sits in the upper left.
Text, The new feature is a methane-rich plume erupting above the atmosphere's upper cloud layers, called an outbreak.
Similar outbreaks are known to occur occasionally in this region, called the South Temperate Belt.
The discovery, and follow-up by Juno, showcase the increasingly prominent role that non-professionals are taking in 21st century astronomy.
This news was brought to you in part by The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA