木星

2020年8月11日 Churning Clouds on Jupiter Image Credit & License: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing: Kevin M. Gill 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 Jupiter’s upper atmosphere reappears below. Pictured…

2020年7月29日 The Giants of Summer Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Luc Dauvergne Explanation: As Comet NEOWISE sweeps through northern summer skies, Jupiter and Saturn are shining brightly, near opposition. With Jupiter opposite the Sun on July 14 and Saturn on July 21, the giant planets are still near their closest to planet Earth in 2020. Sharing the constellation Sagittarius they are up all night, and offer their best and brightest views at the telescope. Both captured on July 22 from a balcony in Paris these two sharp telescopic images don’t disappoint, showing off what the giant planets are famous for, Saturn’s bright rings and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. These giants of the Solar System are worth following during 2020. On December 21, skygazers can watch the…

2020 July 2 The Galaxy, the Planet, and the Apple Tree Image Credit & Copyright: Kristine Richer Explanation: The Old Astronomer’s Milky Way arcs through this peaceful northern sky. Against faint, diffuse starlight you can follow dark rifts of interstellar dust clouds stretching from the galaxy’s core. They lead toward bright star Antares at the right, almost due south above the horizon. The brightest beacon in the twilight is Jupiter, though. From the camera’s perspective it seems to hang from the limb of a tree framing the foreground, an apple tree of course. The serene maritime nightscape was recorded in tracked and untracked exposures on June 16 from Dover, Nova Scotia, planet Earth. Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space 银河系、行星与苹果树 图像提供与版权：Kristine Richer 说明：在这幅宁静的北天影像里，老天文学家珍爱的银河斜贯而过。而在弥漫暗淡的星光衬托下，从银心伸出由星际尘埃云构成的裂谷亦历历可辨。这些裂谷看似伸向影像右侧，悬在南方地平线上空的亮星心宿二。不过，在这片曙光时分的天空中，最明亮的天体是木星。从这部相机看出去，它看似挂在前景苹果树的枝桠上。这幅静谧的海岸夜空影像，是由今年6月16日摄于地球·新斯科细亚省·多佛地区的多张导星与无导星照片组合而成。 明日的图片：pixels in space

2020 June 28 Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1 Image Credit: NASA, Voyager 1, JPL, Caltech; Processing & License: Alexis Tranchandon / Solaris Explanation: What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot — a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini’s likely notation of it 355 years ago. It is not yet known why this Great Spot is red. The spot toward the lower left is one of Jupiter’s largest moons: Europa. Images from Voyager in 1979 bolster the modern hypothesis that Europa has an underground ocean and is therefore a good place to look for extraterrestrial life. But what about the dark spot on the upper right? That…

2020 May 26 The Milky Way over Snow-Capped Himalayas Image Credit & Copyright: Tomas Havel Explanation: What’s higher than the Himalayas? Although the Himalayan Mountains are the tallest on planet Earth, they don’t measure up to the Milky Way. Visible above the snow-capped mountains in the featured image is the arcing central band of our home galaxy. The bright spot just above the central plane is the planet Jupiter, while the brightest orange spot on the upper right is the star Antares. The astrophotographer braved below-zero temperatures at nearly 4,000-meters altitude to take the photographs that compose this image. The featured picture is a composite of eight exposures taken with same camera and from the same location over three hours, just after sunset, in 2019…

2020 May 13 Jupiter in Infrared from Gemini Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA; M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley) & Team; Acknowledgment: Mahdi Zamani; Text: Alex R. Howe (NASA/USRA, Reader’s History of SciFi Podcast) Explanation: In infrared, Jupiter lights up the night. Recently, astronomers at the Gemini North Observatory in Hawaii, USA, created some of the best infrared photos of Jupiter ever taken from Earth’s surface, pictured. Gemini was able to produce such a clear image using a technique called lucky imaging, by taking many images and combining only the clearest ones that, by chance, were taken when Earth’s atmosphere was the most calm. Jupiter’s jack-o’-lantern-like appearance is caused by the planet’s different layers of clouds. Infrared light can pass through clouds better…

2020 March 20 Morning, Planets, Moon and Montreal Image Credit & Copyright: Arnaud Mariat Explanation: Dawn’s early light came to Montreal, northern planet Earth, on March 18, the day before the vernal equinox. At the end of that nearly equal night the Moon stands above a dense constellation of urban lights in this serene city and skyscape. Of course the Moon’s waning crescent faces toward the rising Sun. Skygazers could easily spot bright Jupiter just above the Moon, close on the sky to a fainter Mars. Saturn, a telescopic favorite, is just a pinprick of light below and farther left of the closer conjunction of Moon, Jupiter and Mars. Near the ecliptic, even Mercury is rising along a line extended to the horizon from Jupiter…