Image (Credit): Jupiter as captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt)
This week’s image once again comes from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but instead of peering outside of our solar system, it is looking around closer to home. The image above of Jupiter is an amazing shot that shows the planet in all its glory – violent storms, glowing auroras, delicate rings, and orbiting moons. The particulars are labeled in the same image below.
The image came from the JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which NASA notes has:
…three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images.
This is a whole new way to see our neighborhood worlds as well as the worlds many light years away.
Image (Credit): Jupiter as captured by the JWST with all of the key areas labeled. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt)
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of Europa orbiting Jupiter. (NASA)
Earlier this year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory started assembling the Europa Clipper spacecraft so it is ready for its launch in 2024 (you can find the latest update here). Once it arrives at Jupiter, the spacecraft will have at least 50 flybys to study the Jovian moon and learn more about its inside, outside, and atmosphere.
Extraterrestrial life might exist under all sorts of conditions that humans would struggle to imagine. But we know of one set of conditions in which life flourishes in a multitude of shapes and sizes: the conditions found on Earth. Because we know Earth has the right conditions for life, humans can then sharply narrow down the search for extraterrestrial life by searching only in places that have the conditions that Earth life requires: a source of energy, the presence of certain chemical compounds, and temperatures that allow liquid water to exist. Jupiter’s icy moon Europa seems to be just such a place.
And water exists in abundance, as the NASA graphic shows below.
The Europa Clipper will not make it to Jupiter until 2030, so we have a long wait ahead of us. It also gives us plenty of time to guess about what we will find.
You can follow the status of the Europa Clipper here.
Image (Credit): Illustration comparing water on the Earth and Europa. (NASA)
Image (Credit): This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole was created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gabriel Fiset)
Thanks to these astronomy apps, you can use your phone to see which stars and constellations are above you in real time, day or night. Whether you’re planning on stargazing, are curious about which constellations are in your location, or simply want to flex on your family and friends around the campfire, the following apps can show you what you’re seeing in the sky.
To understand the reason Jupiter currently looks the way it does, Kane and his graduate student Zhexing Li ran a dynamic computer simulation accounting for the orbits of Jupiter’s four main moons, as well as the orbit of the planet itself, and information about the time it takes for rings to form. Their results are detailed here, soon to be published in the Planetary Science journal.
In recent years, a large number of exoplanets have been found around single ‘normal’ stars. New research shows that there may be exceptions to this trend. Researchers suggest a new way of detecting dim bodies, including planets, orbiting exotic binary stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs).
Image (Credit): This diagram shows Lucy’s orbital path in green after her October 2021 launch to visit the Trojan asteroids. (Southwest Research Institute)
Last week I noted some of the mission priorities in the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first year. Those priorities were listed under “Exoplanets and Disks.” I thought I would highlight a few more, this time from the “Solar System Astronomy” list. Here are five more priorities:
Pluto’s Climate System with JWST;
The Moons of Uranus: A NIRSpec Investigation of Their Origins, Organic Constituents, and Possible Ocean World Activity;
A Pure Parallel Survey of Water in the Asteroid Belt;
DiSCo-TNOs: Discovering the Composition of the Trans-Neptunian Objects, Icy Embryos for Planet Formation; and
JWST Observations of Lucy Mission Targets.
Each of these priorities come with an explanation of the mission. For example, here is a little more about NASA’s Lucy mission from the JWST proposal:
The Lucy spacecraft – to be launched at approximately the same time as JWST – will perform the first ever in situ exploration of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Trojans are the largest population of solar system bodies currently unvisited by spacecraft, and revealing their composition and formation history is the key to untangling disparate hypothesis for the early dynamical evolution of the entire solar system.
Understanding these enigmatic bodies requires not just the high spatial resolution imagery and spectroscopy that will be afforded by Lucy, but also the superb near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy of which JWST is uniquely capable. The high signal-to-noise, high spectral resolution, and extended wavelength coverage beyond the capabilities of Lucy will allow JWST to sensitively probe the organic, carbonate, and silicate components of the surfaces of the Trojans. Meanwhile, the Lucy spectra and images will place these observations into their geological and historical context, greatly extending the scientific utility of both the JWST observations and the Lucy visit. Together these observations will paint a rich picture of this population, allowing us to trace connections with other bodies studied remotely and in situ across the solar system.
Lucy was launched last October and is expected to encounter its first Trojan asteroid until August 2027. You can find the full mission timeline here.
Image (Credit): The Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA/ESA)
This week’s image is the Hubble Space Telescope, still going strong after more than 32 years. It left the Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay on April 25, 1990. With all of the attention on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it’s important to remember this dependable space telescope that brought us so many amazing images over the years, including those shown below.
Given the concern over the recent concerns about a micrometeroid impacting the JWST, let’s not forget that the Hubble had a few growing pains as well. Most importantly, it had to deal with a flawed mirror that required astronauts to visit the space telescope so they could add five pairs of corrective mirrors. More than three years had passed before the astronauts could make this correction. So the current issues with the JWST are pretty minor by comparison.
Image (Credit): The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, located 8 000 light-years away. (NASA/ESA)
Image (Credit): A pillar of gas and clouds within the stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. (NASA/ESA).
Our Awesome Universe 