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APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:05 am
by APOD Robot
Churning Clouds on Jupiter
Explanation: Where is Jupiter's ammonia? Gaseous
ammonia was expected to be seen in
Jupiter's upper atmosphere by the orbiting
Juno spacecraft -- but in many clouds is almost absent. Recent Juno data, however, gives some clues: some high-level clouds appear to be home to an unexpected type of electrical discharge dubbed
shallow lightning. Great charge separations are needed for
lightning, which might be created by colliding mushballs lifted by rising updrafts of gas. Ammonia and water stick to these
mushballs which rise until they get too heavy -- after which they
fall deep into
Jupiter's atmosphere and melt. By this process, ammonia found missing from <a hre="ap200106.html">Jupiter's upper atmosphere</a> reappears below.
Pictured by Juno, churning clouds on Jupiter show not only mesmerizing complexity but some high-level, light-colored
pop-up clouds.
Understanding atmospheric dynamics on Jupiter gives valuable perspective to similar atmospheric and
lightning phenomena that occur on our home Earth.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:36 am
by Rohan
Cloudy with a chance of mushballs ...
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 5:54 am
by Ann
Mushballs and pop-up clouds. Yes, Jupiter is a different world.
And we are here. It is so extraordinary when you think of it.
Ann
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:45 pm
by neufer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiing-Shen_Chern wrote:
<<Shiing-Shen Chern (October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geometry" and is widely regarded as a leader in geometry and one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century.>>
- Hail to Chern! Mathematics Greatest!
He made Gauss-Bonnet a household word,
Intrinsic proofs he found,
Throughout the World his truths abound,
Chern classes he gave us,
and Secondary Invariants,
Fibre Bundles and Sheaves,
Distributions and Foliated Leaves!
All Hail All Hail to CHERN.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:13 pm
by bystander
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:29 pm
by Fossilnole
As a zoologist, I saw a great likeness of an octopus at lower center of this image. Great stuff.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:33 pm
by NCTom
I am more familiar with the atmospheric belts of Jupiter. What is the region we are seeing? One of the poles?
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:56 pm
by bystander
NCTom wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:33 pm
I am more familiar with the atmospheric belts of Jupiter. What is the region we are seeing? One of the poles?
PIA23803 wrote:
... At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 5,375 miles (8,650 kilometers) from Jupiter's cloud tops at a latitude of about 50 degrees North. ...
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
by Phobos1
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 3:20 pm
by johnnydeep
neufer wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:45 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiing-Shen_Chern wrote:
<<Shiing-Shen Chern (October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geometry" and is widely regarded as a leader in geometry and one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century.>>
- Hail to Chern! Mathematics Greatest!
He made Gauss-Bonnet a household word,
Intrinsic proofs he found,
Throughout the World his truths abound,
Chern classes he gave us,
and Secondary Invariants,
Fibre Bundles and Sheaves,
Distributions and Foliated Leaves!
All Hail All Hail to CHERN.
You've lost me yet again. Did "
Churning Clouds" really lead you to think of this obscure (to me anyway) mathematician named Shiing-Shen
Chern?
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 3:38 pm
by BDanielMayfield
bystander wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:56 pm
NCTom wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:33 pm
I am more familiar with the atmospheric belts of Jupiter. What is the region we are seeing? One of the poles?
PIA23803 wrote:
... At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 5,375 miles (8,650 kilometers) from Jupiter's cloud tops at a latitude of about 50 degrees North. ...
Phobos1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
Look behind you, Phobos1. Answers sometimes precede questions.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:42 pm
by orin stepanek
Jumping Jupiter! Reminds me of old time wallpaper!
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:52 pm
by Chris Peterson
Phobos1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
You're looking at about 12,000 km of the surface. Think a coin on a soccer ball.
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:37 pm
by johnnydeep
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:52 pm
Phobos1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
You're looking at about 12,000 km of the surface. Think a coin on a soccer ball.
I don't understand. The diameter of Jupiter is 140,000 km. The pic seems to shows the full width of Jupiter, that is, we see both "sides". Oh, wait - light brightening as I write this - is it because we are so close to the surface that the edges of the circular horizon we see don't show the full width?
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:38 pm
by johnnydeep
johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:37 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:52 pm
Phobos1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
You're looking at about 12,000 km of the surface. Think a coin on a soccer ball.
I don't understand. The diameter of Jupiter is 140,000 km. The pic seems to shows the full width of Jupiter, that is, we see both "sides". Oh, wait - light brightening as I write this - is it because we are so close to the surface that the edges of the circular horizon we see don't reflect the full width of the planet?
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:03 pm
by Chris Peterson
johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:37 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:52 pm
Phobos1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:04 pm
Is that a nearly polar view? Those clouds look nothing like bands you see near the equator.
You're looking at about 12,000 km of the surface. Think a coin on a soccer ball.
I don't understand. The diameter of Jupiter is 140,000 km. The pic seems to shows the full width of Jupiter, that is, we see both "sides". Oh, wait - light brightening as I write this - is it because we are so close to the surface that the edges of the circular horizon we see don't show the full width?
Bingo. The horizon is very close. (We see the same thing on a lot of ISS images of the Earth... it sort of looks like we're seeing the globe of the Earth, but we're really just seeing to a horizon 1000 miles away.)
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:03 am
by johnnydeep
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:03 pm
johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:37 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:52 pm
You're looking at about 12,000 km of the surface. Think a coin on a soccer ball.
I don't understand. The diameter of Jupiter is 140,000 km. The pic seems to shows the full width of Jupiter, that is, we see both "sides". Oh, wait - light brightening as I write this - is it because we are so close to the surface that the edges of the circular horizon we see don't show the full width?
Bingo. The horizon is very close. (We see the same thing on a lot of ISS images of the Earth... it sort of looks like we're seeing the globe of the Earth, but we're really just seeing to a horizon 1000 miles away.)
Cool. I learned something again. Thanks!
Re: APOD: Churning Clouds on Jupiter (2020 Aug 11)
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:07 pm
by NCTom
Thanks, everyone. Like Johnnydeep, I have learned something else. That always makes for a worthwhile day, and why this is such a great site!
