Jovian Jet Stream

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·       Animated Hubble maps of Jupiter: NASA GSFC, STScI

·       Webb image of Jupiter: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

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A grid of photographs of celestial bodies moves up. A white line moves down and another across. Text, News from the universe. The text is above an image of Jupiter. 

 

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Text, Jovian Jet Stream. October 30, 2023. Image credit, Hubble Space Telescope. Jupiter rotates as it moves closer. Text, For as long as there have been telescopes, they have been used to observe the planet Jupiter. And yet new features of the gas giant planet are still being discovered. 

 

In its first observations of Jupiter, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope found a never-before-detected, high-speed jet stream. Image credit, James Webb Space Telescope. 

 

The jet is located at the equator, above the cloud tops, and is moving at 320 miles per hour (515 kph), twice the speed of a Category 5 hurricane on Earth. While other NASA missions probe the deeper layers of Jupiter's atmosphere, Webb is especially sensitive to higher altitudes. 

 

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Together with Webb, NASA missions are now able to track changes in Jupiter's famously turbulent atmosphere like never before. 

 

This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. 

 

Jupiter rotates.