NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new, never-before-seen feature in Jupiter's atmosphere. The high-speed jet stream, which spans more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide, sits over Jupiter's equator above the main cloud decks.
The discovery of this jet is giving insights into how the layers of Jupiter's famously turbulent atmosphere interact with each other, and how Webb is uniquely capable of tracking those features. The discovery of this jet is giving insights into how the layers of Jupiter's famously turbulent atmosphere interact with each other, and how Webb is uniquely capable of tracking those features.
"Even though various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft like NASA's Juno and Cassini, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have observed the Jovian system's changing weather patterns, Webb has already provided new findings on Jupiter's rings, satellites, and its atmosphere," de Pater noted. The newly discovered jet stream travels at about 320 miles per hour , twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane here on Earth. It is located around 25 miles above the clouds, in Jupiter's lower stratosphere.By comparing the winds observed by Webb at high altitudes, to the winds observed at deeper layers from Hubble, the team could measure how fast the winds change with altitude and generate wind shears.
The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet's speed and altitude change over time.
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