Astronomers have uncovered surprising constructions in Jupiter‘s higher environment utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the European Space Agency (ESA) introduced Tuesday.
“Scientists have found intricate features above Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot,” mentioned ESA Webb Telescope on X.
Previously considered “unremarkable,” the area hosts “intricate features, including dark arcs and bright spots,” it mentioned in a report.
“We thought this region, perhaps naively, would be really boring,” mentioned group chief Henrik Melin of the University of Leicester, in response to ESA.
“It is in fact just as interesting as the northern lights, if not more so. Jupiter never ceases to surprise,” Melin added.
These findings recommend that gravity waves, “similar to waves crashing on a beach,” play a major position in shaping the higher environment’s construction, in response to Melin.
Team member Imke de Pater of the University of California in Berkeley highlighted the altering understanding of Jupiter’s environment.
“One of our objectives had been to investigate why the temperature above the Great Red Spot appeared to be high…However, our new data showed very different results,” she mentioned.
ESA additionally famous that the observations, a part of the “Early Release Science” program, utilized “Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in July 2022.”
ESA mentioned these discoveries, revealed in Nature Astronomy, might assist future missions comparable to ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), which launched on April 14, 2023 to review Jupiter and its moons.
Source: www.anews.com.tr