James Webb Space Telescope Studies Jupiter's Big Red Spot

Jupiter and his big red spot. Photo credit: NASA

When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in May 2020, one of its first targets We expect it to be the big red spot of Jupiter, a big storm that would have been active on the giant planet for more than 350 years.

A joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, JWST is expected to be the most complex space telescope ever built. Using its infrared capability, it is intended to return data that may be based on previous observations of the storm by smaller observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light.

Global observation is one of JWST's mission objectives, with the direct imaging of exoplanets and novas, the study of star formation and the formation of early galaxies. l & # 39; universe.

University of Leicester It is expected that researcher Leigh Fletcher, lead scientist for JWST's Big Red Dot observations, along with his scientific team, will create multi-spectral maps of the big red spot using the instrument's half-infrared telescope (MIRI). The researchers are part of a larger group that aims to use JWST to study various planets in the solar system.

The big red spot of Jupiter seen by JunoCam on July 10, 2017. Photo credit: Jason Major / NASA / SwRI / MSSS

MIRI should analyze the thermal, chemical and cloudy structures of the Great Storm, focusing specifically on observations between five and seven micrometers – wavelengths in which the planet has never been observed. These wavelengths, which can not be detected from the Earth even with the most powerful telescopes, could allow scientists to see the chemical by-products of the big storm, which could give clues to its composition, according to The NASA.

"Webb's infrared sensitivity marvelously completes studies of Hubble's visible wavelength on the big red spot," said Heidi Hammel, executive vice president of the JWST's interdisciplinary scientist JWST. Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in a NASA press release. "Hubble's images have revealed striking changes in the size of the Great Red Spot over the life span of several decades of the mission."

According to NASA, the researchers hope that the infrared observations will provide insight into the unique color of the Great Red Spot, which according to some scientists is produced by the interaction of solar radiation with chemicals, including sulfur, l 39; nitrogen and phosphorus. to its upper layers by the atmospheric currents.

"We will look for signatures of all the chemical compounds that are unique to the [Great Red Spot]… which could be responsible for red chromophores, "said Fletcher." If we do not see any unexpected chemical or aerosol signatures … then the mystery of this red color remains unresolved. "

According to NASA, chromophores are the parts of molecules that give them their colors.

JWST could potentially solve another mystery, especially the unexplained heat from the upper atmosphere of Jupiter in the vicinity of the great red spot. According to NASA, one theory is that heat is generated inside the storm and is transported from there to the upper atmosphere of the planet. Specifically, Fletcher wants to test a proposed theory that attributes heat in the Great Red Spot to the collision of gravity waves and sound waves produced by the storm.

"All waves produced by vigorous convective activity in the storm must cross the stratosphere before reaching the ionosphere and the thermosphere," Fletcher said. "So, if they really exist and are responsible for heating the outer layers of Jupiter, we hope to see evidence of their passage in our data.These particular observations will reveal the vertical structure of the storm, which will be a major constraint For numerical simulations of Jovian meteorology, if these simulations can help explain what Webb is observing in the infrared, then we will be a little closer to understanding how these gigantic maelstroms have been living for so long. "

Located 22 degrees south of the equator of the giant planet, the great red spot is continuously monitored since 1830. Scientists do not know if it's the same storm spotted by astronomer Robert Hooke in 1664 and by Giovanni Cassini the following year.

Although Hubble's data has shown that the size of the storm has declined for a while, scientists do not believe that it will die anytime soon.

Tagged: Large Infrared Red Spot James Webb Space Telescope Jupiter The Range

Laurel Kornfeld

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, New Jersey, who loves writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College of Rutgers University and obtained a postgraduate certificate in Science from the Astronomy Online program at the University of Swinburne. His writings have been published online in The Atlantic, the guest blog section of Astronomy magazine, the British Space Conference, the Journal of the General Assembly of IAU in 2009, The Space Reporter and newsletters Information from various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the amateur astronomer team based in Cranford, NJ. Specially interested in the external solar system, Laurel made a brief presentation at Great Planet Debate 2008 at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD.