Cassini At Jupiter: Red Spot Movie
Everything is big
on
Jupiter, the solar system's reigning gas giant.
For example, Jupiter's
Great
Red Spot is a hurricane-like storm
system at least twice the diameter of planet Earth.
Approaching Jupiter in early October the
Cassini
spacecraft
recorded the images used in
this
excellent movie of the swirling
storm system and planet-circling
cloud bands.
Seven mosaicked frames make up the movie sequence, each
separated by one or two rotation periods (Jupiter rotates
about once every 10 hours).
The sequence is viewed
as a simple cylindrical
map projection spanning 50 degrees
north to 50 degrees south of the Jovian equator.
Can you see the small bright "clouds" which seem
to suddenly appear west (left) of the Red Spot?
Data from the Galileo spacecraft, orbiting
Jupiter since 1996, suggest that these features are
large lightning storms.
Saturn-bound, the Cassini spacecraft will take a
few months to fly by Jupiter,
coordinating
Jovian explorations
with Galileo and picking up
speed for the final leg of its
interplanetary journey.