PSA: Hey, don’t forget to register to win the Sam Neill DVDs!
New Horizons is one of the fastest probes ever launched by humans. Even so, it’ll take another eight years to get to Pluto, its primary target. But it would take longer if it didn’t steal energy from Jupiter in a process called a gravity assist (it catches up to Jupiter from behind, if you will, and absorbs some of Jupiter’s orbital momentum, accelerating the probe a lot and slowing Jupiter an eensy weensy bit).
But the folks who run the NH program aren’t ones to let an opportunity pass — or to pass an opportunity. They aimed NH’s very sophisticated cameras at the monster planet and took a set of incredible images (there are 4 gigabytes of images in all, and 70% have been sent back so far).
There were many purposes for getting the images. There are still lots of things we don’t understand about Jupiter, of course, so more data always help. Things change there all the time, so getting images at any time is good. Also, it helps to calibrate the cameras on New Horizons. I spent many years calibrating instruments on board Hubble, and so I know that if you don’t understand how your equipment works, you can’t get any good information out of them.
But they also took pictures because they’re pretty. Check this out:
That’s the moon Europa rising over Jupiter’s limb. The planners took that picture not because they could get good science, but because they knew it would be stunning. Stanley Kubrick couldn’t have done better!
But like I said, things change. Io is a volcanic moon, constantly erupting as its insides are churned up by tides from the other moons. When NH passed, the volcano Tvashtar was spewing sulphur into the sky:
Wow.
And finally, how can I ignore my own namesake, Oval BA, Red Spot Junior? This is highest resolution color image ever taken of it:
For a sense of scale, the Earth would fit easily inside the frame of this picture. Jupiter does things BIG.
There are tons more images on the New Horizons site, and they are all incredible, and all worth looking at. Man, just 8 more years. I can’t wait!
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Offtopic: Something in this post is dragging down every browser I try, from IE6 on Windows to Safari on Mac. Something Macromedia-ish.
Bring back HTML 1.0, I say.
>>> Jupiter does things BIG.
Not as big as Texas, son.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
>>Not as big as Texas, son.
Isn’t Texas one of those tiny little US provinces, smaller than Alaska, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, NWT and Nunavut?
Cool pics though. New horizons fails to disappoint!
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
To Quiet_Desperation:
Have you tried Firefox? I don’t have any troubles with this site, well hardly any… Though, every once in a while… No, No, that was on the evil twin of this site GoodAstrology!?!
Siriusly, only once in while, when Dr. Plait makes some small tweak to the site do I have any problems, but it doesn’t last very long.
As for the New Horizon mission, I hope I’m still around when it reaches Pluto, the new major minor planet or is it a minor major planet. Then what is Jupiter, a Major Major Planet!! Gack, gotta stop these late night internet sessions.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I am the very model of a model major general… or however that goes…
Yeah, I gotta stop these late-night sessions, too!
Getting to the Jupiter pics… I thought that shot of Oval BA was a pic of the GRS until I read the description. WOW! Just wow!
And yes, the shot of Europa rising over Jupiter’s limb is beautiful, and is a new favorite of mine.
I’ve been taking up tons of disc space saving some of the Cassini pics of Saturn & its moons; now I’ll be doing more of Jupiter, now that there are new ones.
And like Phil, I can’t wait to see Pluto!
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:50 pm
“Not as big as Texas, son.”
Now, don’t go listening to this guy. Texas is just another one of those small, crowded, eastern states.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Oval BA:
Looks like Munk and Van Gough joined hands. The theme certainly mellowed from ‘Scream’, but can’t quite place its title.
Are the colors for real? What an artsy giant….!
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I can’t believe you can all fall for this New Horizons hoax!
I distinctly remember seeing the first picture in some movie. Cannot remember the title, but that name Kubrick does ring a bell. The last one of a so called junior spot or something is nothing more than that: some spot on a canvas. You can clearly see the brush marks and the canvas texture if you zoom in by 1600% or so.
But the most telling is the shot of the “volcano” on “Io” (Tvashtar? Can’t they come up with a better name than that?). Why is it that the “dark side” has so much light that you can bloomin’ read a paper? Huh? And why are the volcano’s “plumes” blown by the wind to one side? Huh?
Talk about some bad astronomy…
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I’m intrigued by how sharp Jupiter’s horizon is in the first photo. I’m used to seeing an atmospheric blur on the horizon in photos taken in space of Earth’s horizon, and I suppose I expected the same effect on Jupiter.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:20 am
Of course, Jupiter is all atmosphere.
Maybe it’s a scale thing. Maybe the upper, not-entirely-opaque layers (if they exist) are just two thin, relative to the enormous girth of Jupiter, to show any blurring.
This is pure speculation on my part, performed while avoiding doing my job.
Anybody care to let me know if I’m remotely on tracl? Thanks
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:22 am
Oh! My! Non-existant! Diety!
Did I just spell “too” as “two”?
Someone, please shoot me now…
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 am
The detail and three-dimensional effect of the Tvashtar plume is simply incredible if you look at a larger version of the image!
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:22 am
Wow. These images are remarkable. I wonder, when you consider that there’s actually good science coming from the flyby, if NASA administrators also factor in the tertiary value of a mission as well as the primary objective when signing off costs.
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:53 am
Peter B and Stuart, I assume that the standard exponential formula for atmospheric density with height is applicable: n = n0 e^(-mgh/kT). So because g is much larger than on Earth, combined with the sheer size of Jupiter, there is much less blurring.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:26 am
[...] NASA New Horizons press release here. Thanks to Bad Astronomy Blog for the [...]
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:33 am
Is Tvashtar really spewing sulfur, like volcanoes on earth?
I think I’ve read many place that it was thought to be something like water. Or maybe I am confusing with another moon around Saturn?
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:03 am
Ok.
I used the Internets, and found this: http://www.planetaryexploration.net/jupiter/io/volcanism_on_io.html
Which clearly states that its Sulfur, and Sulfur dioxyde… my wrong.
The ice spewing volcano is on Enceladus, orbiting Saturn…
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:06 am
I like how all the Google ads on this blog entry are for real estate in Jupiter, Florida.
Maybe programmers could use a little more Kubrikian imagination.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:20 am
Is Tvashtar really spewing sulfur, like volcanoes on earth?
Yes, if I recall correctly the material is sulfur. There is no water on Io.
I think I’ve read many place that it was thought to be something like water. Or maybe I am confusing with another moon around Saturn?
Yes, you’re confusing it with Enceladus which has water geysers on its south pole. Io and Enceladus are the only satellites that are known to have active volcanism. Titan is most likely also volcanically active, but we don’t have direct evidence yet.
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:43 am
ACK! So many gigabytes, so little bandwidth.
I’m thinking seriously about upgrading from 1.5 Mbit DSl to 6 Mbits. I’ve been told(bySouthern Bell) that’s fast enough for live, unbroken, video feeds. Wonder if that’s really an accurate assesment?
Cool pics.
GAry 7
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:17 am
[...] point very often revealed by Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait. I mean, just look at these recent photographs of Jupiter! And the recent Astronomy Cast episode on the finding of another possibly habitable-friendly [...]
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:53 am
I didn’t think you could get to Jupiter in 13 months. Thought it took at least 13 months to get to Mars.
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:49 am
>> I didn’t think you could get to Jupiter in 13 months. Thought it took at least 13 months to get to Mars.
That all depends on how fast you go. New Horizons is going a good deal faster than earlier probes, since it has a very long way to go.
Why do I keep hearing Also Sprach Zarathustra when I look at that image of Europa rising?
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 am
That color shot is as good as any painting.
I want to get a poster-size print of it and hang it on the wall!
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:30 am
Disclaimer:
I’m not from Texas.
Felt a need to add that.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
Donnie, perhaps because Also Sprach Zarathustra is only the coolest piece of music from any SF flick in history.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
A couple of the smaller ranches in Western Australia is the size of Texas.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Although the ranches are called stations, the cowboys are called jackaroos and the cows are called sheep
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Lo’ihi Says: “Oval BA: Looks like Munk and Van Gough joined hands. The theme certainly mellowed from ‘Scream’, but can’t quite place its title.”
Planety Nights.
Don’t forget Europa’s Mondrian impression…
- Jack
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Stealing energy from Jupiter eh
I am surprised someone did not claim this would perturb Jupiter in its orbit and make it crash into the Sun or us.
Maybe I can get in on this new doomsday market, anyone know who Bart uses as his publishing house?
May 3rd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I’m always annoyed when would be NASA naysayers talk about how space research fails to accomplish anything. I don’t bring up the myriad discoveries we’ve made, the vast technological advancements, the international prestige or the military edge that our nation’s experience in space has given us.
No, I say, “We get beautiful pictures and flying in space is badass. Name me another federally sponsored program that gives you both of those?”
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I’m glad they are open to taking art/non-scientific pictures. The unique perspective of space is more than science and even though it is a robotic probe we are there. I do wish they had more color images, I suppose it take 3 times the bandwidth to send such an image but it is worth it, especially since there won’t be anything else out the window for a very long time. Amazing how fast the flight was to Jupiter! Best wishes and thanks to Dr. Stern and the New Horizons team.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Re: active volcanoes on other moons in the Solar System… I thought Neptune’s large moon Triton also has them.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Stuart said:
“Of course, Jupiter is all atmosphere.”
Not quite. Current models have it possessing a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen over a small, rocky core.
See here: http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html
May 4th, 2007 at 2:38 am
The BA said:
“…one of the fastest probes ever launched by humans…”
Hey, whaddya mean one of the fastest? I thought NH was the fastest. Is it, or not really?
May 4th, 2007 at 4:37 am
‘Don’t forget Europa’s Mondrian impression…’ -Jack
Aah, many Europas ago…
May 5th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Neil posted: Current models have it possessing a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen over a small, rocky core
Could someone please tell me what “Liquid Metallic Hydrogen” would look/feel like if you could hold some in a cup? Would it look/act like mercury? I simply cant visualise something I know of as a noble gas being a metallic liquid…
May 5th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Kullat Nunu: “Yes, you’re confusing it with Enceladus which has water geysers on its south pole. Io and Enceladus are the only satellites that are known to have active volcanism. Titan is most likely also volcanically active, but we don’t have direct evidence yet.”
Triton too, Kullat Nunu, has volcanic activity – geyers erupting .. well I think its nitrogen or methane – cyrovulcanism of a weird variety anyhow. They’e spotted a whole lot of dark streaks and I think also some of the actual plumes.
What Triton can do I think Pluto-Charon can do as well -now okay Pluto’s not a moon but Charon is – although if you want to get really picky and call it a double-planet .. okay, double dwarf planet .. Anyay, Ithinkwe’ll find a few other moons (Dione, Iapetus around Saturn for instance) show signs of geologicc activityinvolving resurfacing by flowing material – whether you term them volcanic or not .. is up to you!
Moreover, our our Moon was very volcanic at one stage – all those flat dark areas (mare or “seas”) were once seas of molten lava. So that’s another one … Whats that then :
1) Io
Perhaps Ganymede – etherinpast or prenert at a low level …
2) Enceladus
3) Triton
4) Luna (our Moon -at least in the past and perhaps even today if TLP are really related to volcanic activity there.)
5) Titan – almost certainly …
6) Charon -probably? (I’d expect it although we won’t know for sure till New Horizons gets there!)
6) Dione -possibily? (if liquid water made of most likely water ice can be called volcanism)
7) Iapetus & some of the other Saturian moons … (ditto)
Hmmn okay now I’m speculating but still .. seems a lot more than just Io and Enceladus tho’ they are the most dramatic examples.
Thanks Alan Stern and teh NewHorizons team -awesome images &welldone -thanks tooBA for posting them for our enjoyment.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
DenverAstro Says: (May 5th, 2007 at 6:36 pm) “Neil posted: Current models have it possessing a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen over a small, rocky core
Could someone please tell me what “Liquid Metallic Hydrogen†would look/feel like if you could hold some in a cup? Would it look/act like mercury? I simply cant visualise something I know of as a noble gas being a metallic liquid…”
It wouldn’t stay liquid metallic Hydrogen (lm-H) for long in a cup at room temperature and pressures that’s for sure!
It exists deep beneath the clouds in Jupiter becauseof that planets immense gravityand conseq2uent extremely high pressures. My understanding is its electro-magnetically conducting hence generating tehradiowaves and magnetosphere of Jove which is pretty colossal.
Maybe they’ve been able to make some in a lab somewhere … I’m not sure. But pour it into a cup and it’ll most likely flash back to gaseous state striaghtaway. Possibly taking you with it in a big BOOM!
Don’t now if that helps much but …
The internal structure of Jupiter is still mysterious – we have a number of different theories about it and it appears its core is paradoxically much smaller than that of Saturn and the other gas giants – saw a diagram in anastronomy mag once depicting this.
Read that one theory is that its the size of Earth and probably molten by the intense central heat , but squashed spherical by the pressure. Another theory suggest the carbonaceous asteroids and cometary material common in the region it formed may imply itcould be tarry, carbon-rich, relatively small object or even as Arthur C. Clarke sugested in the ‘Space Odyssey’ series composed of diamond.
Whatever the Jovian core is I gather it’ll be a very, very, v-e-r-y, looo-ong time before we can find out for sure! (Theories are well & good but I can’t see us visiting it … or getting much evdence conclusively on its composition other ways.)
May 6th, 2007 at 9:25 am
DenverAstro said:
“Could someone please tell me what “Liquid Metallic Hydrogen†would look/feel like if you could hold some in a cup? Would it look/act like mercury? I simply cant visualise something I know of as a noble gas being a metallic liquid…”
Well, I think SCR is right; it can only exist at extremely high pressures, and it then behaves like a group I metal. Incidentally, hydrogen is not considered a noble gas, as it is extremely reactive. It is explosive in air at almost any concentration.
May 6th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Not very-very long. Reference: read about JUNO.