Tag: Jupiter

NASA’s Juno probe captures fascinating high-resolution images of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa

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When NASA’s Juno spacecraft performed its closest approach to Jupiter‘s moon Europa in September 2022, it captured evidence not only for pockets of briny water connected to the world’s deep subsurface ocean, but also for potential scars formed by towering plumes of water vapor — and it caught that evidence on camera The majority of imagery from the Juno mission is taken by  an instrument called JunoCam, which scientists revealed was able to take four high-resolution images of Europa’s surface as it raced past the icy moon at an altitude…

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A Moonlit Trio

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NASA/Bill Ingalls The Moon (left), Saturn, and Jupiter (lower right; Saturn is above and to the left of Jupiter) were seen in the sky above the Washington Memorial on Dec. 17, 2020. At the time, Saturn and Jupiter were nearing each other in the sky, culminating in a “great conjunction” on Dec. 21, where they appeared a tenth of a degree apart. Great conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn happen every 20 years, making the planets appear to be close to one another. This closeness occurs because Jupiter orbits the Sun…

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NASA’s Juno probe captures amazing views of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io (video)

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The four biggest moons of Jupiter aren’t just blurry smudges in Galileo’s telescope anymore. The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io back in 1610, which explains why they’re called the Galilean moons. We’ve learned a lot about these exotic bodies in the past 400 years thanks to ever-improving telescope views and close-up imagery snapped by voyaging spacecraft like NASA’s Juno Jupiter orbiter. Indeed, Juno recently conducted two close flybys of Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, and data from the encounters is…

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Hubble Telescope spies stormy weather and a shrinking Great Red Spot on Jupiter (video)

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The gas giant Jupiter steals the show in these two new portraits of the planet’s opposing faces, showing the swirling storms and tumultuous cloud bands blown by winds raging at hundreds of miles per hour. The Hubble Space Telescope took these images on Jan. 5-6, 2024. Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours, Hubble was able to image one hemisphere with the famous Great Red Spot visible, and wait for the other hemisphere to come into view before imaging that. The latest images show that Jupiter is currently experiencing some action.…

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For Your Processing Pleasure: The Sharpest Pictures of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io in a Generation

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1 min read For Your Processing Pleasure: The Sharpest Pictures of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io in a Generation Jupiter’s moon Io, its night side illuminated by reflected sunlight from Jupiter, or “Jupitershine.” Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Emma Wälimäki © CC BY NASA’s Juno spacecraft just made the closest flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has carried out in more than 20 years. An instrument on this spacecraft called “JunoCam” returned spectacular, high-resolution images—and raw data are now available for you to process, enhance, and investigate. On Dec. 30th, 2023, Juno…

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Crescent Moon Over NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

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NASA / Joel Kowsky The crescent moon, along with Jupiter (top right of Moon) and Venus (below Moon) appeared over the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Feb. 22, 2023, as preparations continued for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev launched to the International Space Station March 2, 2023. The NASA Headquarters photographers chose this photo as one of the best images from 2023. See the rest on Flickr. Image…

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NASA’s Juno spacecraft will get its closest look yet at Jupiter’s moon Io on Dec. 30

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NASA’s Juno mission will come closer to Jupiter’s moon Io than any spacecraft has in around 20 years on Saturday (Dec. 30). The flyby will bring Juno to around 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system. This will allow the spacecraft to take a detailed look at Io as it gathers a treasure trove of hot data. It’s close, but not the closest ever glimpse by a spacecraft: that record belongs to NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which skimmed just 181 kilometers (112 miles) above Io’s…

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NASA’s Juno to Get Close Look at Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io on Dec. 30

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This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Ted Stryk The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of…

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Evidence of alien life may exist in the fractures of icy moons around Jupiter and Saturn

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Scientists are investigating specific geological features on the largest moons of both Jupiter and Saturn that could be ideal spots for the emergence of life elsewhere in the solar system. The team, led by researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, looked at what are called “strike-slip faults” on the Jovian moon, Ganymede  —  the solar system’s largest moon, bigger even than the planet Mercury  —  and Saturn’s moon, Titan. Faults like these happen when fault walls move past each other horizontally, either to the left or the right,…

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