Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
Ammonia Ice near Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Original Caption Released with Image:
The first discrete ammonia ice cloud positively identified on Jupiter is shown in this image taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Ammonia ice (light blue) is shown in clouds to the northwest (upper left) of the Great Red Spot (large red spot in middle of figure). This unusual cloud, inside the turbulent wake region near the Great Red Spot, is produced by powerful updrafts of ammonia-laden air from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. These updrafts are generated by the turbulence induced in Jupiter's massive westward-moving air currents by the nearby Great Red Spot.

This false-color image was composed from several near-infrared color images obtained by the Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer on June 26, 1996. Reddish-orange areas show high-level clouds, yellow areas depict mid-level clouds, and green areas depict lower-level clouds. Darker areas are cloud-free regions. Light blue depicts regions of middle-to-high-altit ude-level ammonia ice clouds. The Great Red Spot, which has existed for at least 300 years, is the oldest and largest weather system in our solar system. It measures over 20,000 kilometers wide (over 12,400 miles), which is about twice as wide as Earth.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http: //galileo.jpl.nasa.g ov/gallery/io.cfm.
Addition Date:
2000-10-26
Produced By:
JPL
Mission:
Galileo
Spacecraft:
Galileo Orbiter
Target Name:
Jupiter
Is a satellite of:
Sol (our sun)
Instrument:
Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
Product Size:
2769 samples x 1542 lines
Primary Data Set:
Galileo EDRs
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
Jupiter
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
Galileo
facet_what:
Galileo Orbiter
facet_what:
Spectrometer
facet_what:
Io
facet_what:
Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS)
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where:
Jupiter
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_when:
June 26, 1996
facet_when_year:
1996
Image #:
PIA02569
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA02569
orignial url:

Ammonia Ice near Jupiter's Great Red Spot