Wednesday, February 28, 2007
New Horizons meets Red Spot Jr.
Red Spot Jr. as imaged by New Horizons. Image credit, NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteClick to enlarge (warning 0.8 Mb)
New Horizons successfully made its close approach to Jupiter. It has produced the best image of Red Spot Jr. yet and imaged Europa and Ganymede. It also picked up an eruption on Io.
New Horizons will continue to image the Jovian system as it heads out to Pluto.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Red Storms Colliding
Image Credit Hubble.Remember RedSpot Jnr? The massive storm on Jupiter formed by fusion of several other smaller storms that is now about half the size of the Great Red Spot? Well, Red Spot Jr's been progressively getting closer to the GRS itself. They are now about a GRS width apart, and will get closer. Their closest approach will be around July 4. You can watch the process in a series of images from the stunning RedSpot Jr web site. Red Spot Jr can be seen in many amateur telescopes, it has been picked up in 8" reflectors, and it might be possible in 6" with good condition. My little scope is right out.
So why not have a look tonight? There is a transit at 11:42 (ACST) and another at 7:30 ACST tomorrow night.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
RedSpot Jr. Again
Image Credit HubbleRemember RedSpot Jr? The mini red spot (about the size of Earth) that formed from the merger of three smaller storms has not only survived its passing of the Great Red Spot, but is now as red as the GRS itself, and its winds have grown stronger. They now reach 400 miles per hour. This suggests the storm is growing stronger and Red Spot Jr. will be around for some time. The Hubble press release with more details is here.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
New Horizons visits Jupiter Tomorrow
Image Credit NASA/John Hopkins University. (click to enlarge).The New Horizons spacecraft will make its closest approach to Jupiter in 16 hours from now. It will use Jupiters gravity to slingshot itself across the Solar System to Pluto and the Kupier belt. This will slow Jupiters rotation by a minute fraction. At the moment the spacecraft is gathering impressive images of Jupiter. It will also survey Jupiters rings and follow Jupiters magnetosphere. The image to the left is a mosaic of 4 images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). You can see the Great Red Spot on the lefthand side of the image, and Red Spot Jr on the far right of the image. Hopefully New Horizons can make more detailed observation of Red Spot Jr. See the LORRI gallery for more images.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Red Spots Redux
Image Credit Gemini Observatory ALTAIR Adaptive Optics ImageDue to work, cloud etc. I missed out on the conjunction of the Great Red Spot and Red Spot junior, nor did I get a chance to report on it. So belatedly, I will point you to Tom's report, the Bad Astronomers report, and the press release from the Gemini Observatory (from whence the image comes). Also, drop in to the Red Spot jr website, with lots of amateur images of the two meeting.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Jupiter has a new Red Spot!
(Image Credit, Christopher Go) Jupiter has a new red SPot, not as big as the famous Great Red Spot, but impressive just the same. See the original article at NASA Science or get Tom's take on it.
I'm going to see if I can image it. With my setup, it will be rather borderline, but it could work. The Jupiter image I've take has been rotated to be in the same orientation as Christopher Go's. The GRS is indicated by the black lines. I have to wait until the GRS has almost roated off for GRS Jr to be centre field, and that will be a while yet, bit I might be able to pick it up.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Where's Jupiter on Wednesday?
Wednesday August 2 (that's tomorow night as of now), the waxing Moon will be three fingerwidths to the left of Jupiter. If you are unsure of which object in the evning sky is Jupiter, tomorrow night is a good night to find out. Look to the right of the Moon, by three fingerwidths, and there it is. It will be easy to remember after that, as Jupiter is currently the brightest object in the north-western sky (for us Southern Hemispherians that is).It will also be a good night to check the Movement of the Moon. Every night the Moon covers about two handspans distance across the sky, that's roughly a fingerwith every two hours, something that is easily observable.. if you have a landmark to tell the position of the Moon. Well, you can use Jupiter as your landamark, check the position of the Moon against Jupiter every hour, and you can watch the Moon move across the sky.
If you want to see more great pictures of the Great Red SPot and Red Spt Jr, head over to the Bad Astronomer.
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