![]() ![]() Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede can be seen transiting the giant planet at lower right. Though this vortex is big enough to swallow Earth, it has actually shrunk to the smallest size it has ever been according to observation records dating back 150 years. – Jupiter’s legendary Great Red Spot takes centre stage in this view. This photo was taken on 12 November 2022. Sulphur takes on various hues at different temperatures, which is why Io’s surface is so colourful. The moon’s molten interior is overlaid by a thin crust through which the volcanoes eject material. These volcanoes were first discovered when the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by in 1979. Hubble’s resolution is so sharp that it can see Io’s mottled-orange appearance, the result of its numerous active volcanoes. The orange moon Io photobombs this view of Jupiter’s multicoloured cloud tops, casting a shadow toward the planet’s western limb. Strong colour differences indicate that Hubble is seeing different cloud heights and depths as well. Activity is also seen interior to these storms in the 1990s Hubble didn’t see any cyclones or anticyclones with built-in thunderstorms, but these storms have sprung up in the last decade. The staggered pattern of cyclones and anticyclones prevents individual storms from merging. If the storms get close enough to each other and merge together, they could build an even larger storm, potentially rivalling the current size of the Great Red Spot. This is a wave pattern of nested cyclones and anticyclones, locked together like the alternating gears of a machine moving clockwise and counterclockwise. A prominent string of alternating storms is visible, forming a ‘vortex street’ as some planetary astronomers call it. ![]() – The forecast for Jupiter is for stormy weather at low northern latitudes. Inaugurated in 2014, the Hubble Space Telescope’s Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) programme has been providing us with yearly views of the giant planets. As summer approaches in the northern hemisphere, Hubble sees a growing polar cap of high-altitude photochemical haze that looks similar to the smog over cities on Earth. But those seasons are extreme, because Uranus is tipped on its side. Uranus has seasons that pass by at a snail’s pace because it takes 84 years to complete one orbit about the Sun. This heat indirectly drives colour-change cycles in the clouds, like the cycle that’s currently highlighting a system of alternating cyclones and anticyclones. Jupiter’s weather is driven from the inside out, as more heat percolates up from its interior than it receives from the Sun. And Hubble - in its role as interplanetary meteorologist - is keeping track, as it does every year. Nevertheless, these are ever-changing worlds. And sunlight is much less able to drive atmospheric circulation. The outer planets beyond Mars do not have solid surfaces to affect weather as on Earth. ![]()
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