A montage of images taken of Jupiter and its moon Io (foreground) by the New Horizons mission in 2007. Jupiter is shown in infrared wavelengths while Io is close to true-color. On top of Io is an eruption from the volcano Tvashtar. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons, you gotta wake up this weekend. There’s so much work ahead of you when you reach Pluto next year! The spacecraft has been sleeping quietly for weeks in its last great hibernation before the dwarf planet close encounter in July. On Saturday (Dec. 6), the NASA craft will open its eyes and begin preparations for that flyby.
How cool will those closeups of Pluto and its moons look? A hint comes from a swing New Horizons took by Jupiter in 2007 en route. It caught a huge volcanic plume erupting off of the moon Io, picked up new details in Jupiter’s atmosphere and gave scientists a close-up of a mysterious “Little Red Spot.” Get a taste of the fun seven years ago in the gallery below.
An eruption from the Tvashtar volcano on Io, Jupiter’s moon, in several different wavelength images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2007. The left image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) shows lava glowing in the night. At top right, the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) spotted sulfur and sulfor dioxide deposits on the sunny side of Io. The remaining image from the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) shows volcanic hotspots on Io’s surface. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteJupiter’s “Little Red Spot” seen by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2007. The spot turned red in 2005 for reasons scientists were then unsure of, but speculated it could be due to stuff from inside the atmosphere being stirred up by a storm surge. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteA “family portrait” of the four Galilean satellites around Jupiter taken by the New Horizons spacecraft and released in 2007. From left, the montage includes Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteA composite of Jupiter’s bands (and atmospheric structures) taken in several images by the New Horizons Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera, showing differences due to sunlight and wind. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteIn February and March 2007, a huge plume erupted from the Tvashtar volcano on Jupiter’s moon Io. The image sequence taken by New Horizons showed the largest such explosion then viewed by a spacecraft — even accounting for the Galileo spacecraft that examined Io between 1996 and 2001. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteThe New Horizons flyby of Io in 2007 (right) revealed a changing feature on the surface of the Jupiter moon since Galileo’s image of 1999 (left.) Inside the circle, a new volcanic eruption spewed material; other pictures showed this region was still active. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
'Fly Me to the Moons' -- a view of the Moon with Jupiter and the four Galilean moons, along with a passing airplane. Credit and copyright: Greg Gibbs.
“No matter how much you plan and prepare,” said photographer Greg Gibbs, “sometimes you just have to be very lucky.”
As we mentioned last week, Jupiter and the Moon were going to have a close encounter in the sky on February 18, with an occultation visible in some areas. And so Gibbs was preparing to get shots of the occultation through his telescope from his location in Victoria, Australia, and was using an automated timer to get shots at about 10 second intervals But then he noticed lights from a plane coming close to the Moon.
“I realised that there was a chance that it would pass in front of the Moon,” he said, “so I quickly canceled the remote timer I was using to take the shots and instead started shooting high speed continuous frames. I managed to get this plane crossing the moon in five individual frames just as Jupiter was about to be occulted by The Moon.”
This final product, as Gibbs notes on his Facebook page, is a two image composite. The Moon, Jupiter and the plane are all one single image. Then he took an overexposed image to bring up the Galilean Moons of (from left to right) Io, Callisto and Europa. At the time of this shot, Ganymede had already been occulted by The Moon.
There’s the old saying, “If you can’t be good, be lucky…”
This shot may have been lucky, but it sure is good, too!
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Have you seen a very bright star rising in the East every night the past few months? If you’re a night owl, you may have noticed it moves across they sky from the East into the West, shining brightly throughout the night. However this object is not a star! It’s the planet Jupiter and it is the brightest object in the night sky at the moment, apart from the Moon.
At the end of October Jupiter will be at opposition. This means the mighty planet (the largest in our solar system) will be directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth and it will also be at its closest point to Earth in the two planets’ orbits around the Sun. This makes Jupiter or any other object at opposition appear brighter and larger. The opposition of Jupiter occurs on October 29, 2011.
But Jupiter has been gracing our night sky for several months, and will continue to shine brightly as it moves in and out of opposition. But enjoy the view now, as this will be the closest opposition until 2022!
Visually, even with the naked eye, Jupiter is stunning! A burning yellowish-white star-like object, many times brighter than any other stars.
But through a pair of ordinary binoculars or a small telescope, Jupiter comes to life. Not only is it possible to see the disc of the Planet, you can also see the four Galilean moons.
The Galilean moons, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io were discovered by Galileo over 400 years ago and are amazing worlds in their own right.
Callisto is the outermost moon with a very ancient and heavily cratered surface. It is the second largest of the four moons, but does not interact tidally with an “orbital resonance” unlike the other three moons. Callisto. Image credit: NASA/JPL
Ganymede is the largest of the four moons and is also the largest moon in the Solar system, being larger than the Planet Mercury. The bizarre surface is a mix of two types of terrain – highly cratered dark regions and younger, but still ancient regions with a large array of grooves and ridges. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system to have its own magnetosphere.
Ganymede Credit: NASA
Europa is the second closest moon and is also the smallest. It has one of the smoothest and newest surfaces in the solar system, being covered purely with ice. Europa is likely a water world and it is believed that below its icy surface, lies a deep moon-wide ocean surrounding a warm mantle. It is one of the most likely places to harbour life in the solar system.
Europa from Galileo
Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter and third largest. It is the most geologically active body in the solar system with over 400 active volcanoes and an ever changing and hostile surface of sulphur and silicates.
Io Credit: NASA
When you look up tonight and stare at Jupiter, or you are looking at it through binoculars or a telescope, just think – Jupiter and the four Galilean moons are a very interesting place, almost a mini solar system with our larger solar system!
Occasionally you will see Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot” or the shadow of one of the moons on Jupiter’s surface. The Jupiter system is always changing.
If you want to find out what the positions are for the moons, use planetarium software such as Stellarium and then have a look yourself.
