Peering through Jupiter’s clouds with radio spectral imaging

• Autores: Imke de Pater, R. J. Sault
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 352, Nº 6290, 2016, págs. 1198-1201
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Radio wavelengths can probe altitudes in Jupiter’s atmosphere below its visible cloud layers. We used the Very Large Array to map this unexplored region down to ~8 bar, ~100 kilometers below the visible clouds. Our maps reveal a dynamically active planet at pressures less than 2 to 3 bar. A radio-hot belt exists, consisting of relatively transparent regions (a low ammonia concentration, NH3 being the dominant source of opacity) probing depths to over ~8 bar; these regions probably coincide with 5-micrometer hot spots. Just to the south we distinguish an equatorial wave, bringing up ammonia gas from Jupiter’s deep atmosphere. This wave has been theorized to produce the 5-micrometer hot spots; we observed the predicted radio counterpart of such hot spots.