A bright fireball -- most likely a small asteroid or a comet -- struck Jupiter at 22:39 UTC on September 13, 2021. The impact was seen and captured by astronomers across the world who were observing the ongoing transit of the shadow of Jupiter's moon Io. "A...
September 15, 2021
The first two images from Juno spacecraft's June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter’s giant moon Ganymede have been received on Earth. This was the closest any spacecraft has come to this moon in a generation. The photos – one from the Jupiter orbiter’s...
June 09, 2021
A team of international researchers has made a major discovery about aurora activity on Jupiter. Their study supports the previously controversial idea that Jupiter's polar cap is threaded in part with closed magnetic field lines and proves the lights hold clues...
April 14, 2021
A rare great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will take place at 18:11 UTC on December 21, with the two planets passing just 6.1 arcminutes (about one-fifth the apparent width of the moon) of each other, as seen from Earth. Coincidentally, the December solstice is...
December 20, 2020
Since first spotted by NASA's Juno space probe in 2019, a collection of swirling storms arranged in an unusually geometric pattern has been a mystery to most scientists. A new study may have uncovered how the strange weather forms and why the storms behave...
September 29, 2020
Some scientists theorize that Jupiter acts like a giant space shield-- due to its tremendous mass, it sucks in or deflects dangerous space objects. However, studies led by American planetary physicist Kevin Grazier demonstrate that the planet is actually a threat...
January 11, 2020
Astronomers have long suspected that Europa, Jupiter's moon, holds a salty ocean beneath its thick icy crust that could support life. NASA has confirmed that they have now detected water erupting from geysers on the surface of the moon. An international research...
November 23, 2019
NASA's Juno scientists have unveiled their 3D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate Jupiter’s polar regions, and the first detailed view of a dynamo, or engine, powering the magnetic field for any planet beyond...
April 12, 2018
ESA and NASA space telescopes have revealed that, unlike Earth’s polar lights, the intense auroras seen at Jupiter’s poles unexpectedly behave independently of one another. Auroras have been seen in many places, from planets and moons to stars, brown...
October 30, 2017
Scientists on NASA's Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter's polar regions that contribute to the giant planet's powerful auroras - only not in ways the researchers expected. Examining data collected by the...
September 15, 2017
In Part 1 of this presentation, physicist Wal Thornhill began his analysis of the extraordinary revelations from NASA's Juno Mission to the gas giant Jupiter. Like every other recent space mission, what scientists are finding is not what they expected. In the...
July 08, 2017
Scientists working on NASA’s historic Juno mission to the gas giant Jupiter have recently presented their early findings for the first time. Like so many other recent space missions, what they have discovered is not what they expected. As reported by New...
June 15, 2017
NASA’s Juno mission, led by Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Scott Bolton, is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about Jupiter specifically, and gas giants in general, according to a pair of Science papers released today. The Juno spacecraft...
May 26, 2017
Planet Jupiter is at opposition on April 7, 2017, meaning that the Sun, Earth and Jupiter will form a straight line. At around the same time that Jupiter passes opposition (21:28 UTC), it also makes its closest approach to the Earth in 2017. By midnight (local...
April 07, 2017
Astronomers have again imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, bolstering other observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high altitude water plumes. The observation increases the possibility that missions...
September 26, 2016
NASA's Juno spacecraft has executed the first of 36 orbital flybys on August 27, 2016, when it came about 4 200 km (2 500 miles) above Jupiter's swirling clouds. It was Juno's first flyby with instruments switch on and it sent back first-ever images of...
September 02, 2016
Researchers from Boston University's (BU) Center for Space Physics report that Jupiter's Great Red Spot may provide the mysterious source of energy required to heat the planet's upper atmosphere to the unusually high values observed. The work, led by Dr...
July 28, 2016
According to new research, data being collected from Jupiter, Saturn and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, can provide the new information about the Earth’s past and future atmospheric conditions. A team of scientist will analyze the vast amount of data...
February 27, 2016
Astronomers have always been fascinated by the gas giant Jupiter. A planet over 1000 times the size of Earth with 63 natural moons, 4 of whom are nearly as big as planets themselves, Jupiter and its moons are considered to be a mini solar system and are popularly...
October 27, 2015
NASA's scientists have produced new maps of Jupiter from images collected by the Hubble Space Telescope. Newly composed maps are the first in a series of yearly images of the Solar System's outer planets, designed to keep track of how these giant worlds...
October 15, 2015
A previous Picture of the Day published in late 2012 quoted Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester:“The main aurora oval on Jupiter we think should dim when the solar wind blows harder, but what we see is that actually gets brighter, which is totally
July 07, 2015
In the clouds of Jupiter, scientists have found evidence of a type of atmospheric wave that had long been proposed but had not been identified in images before now.Researchers consider this kind of wave, called a Kelvin wave, a fundamental part of a planetary atmosphere
April 19, 2015
A swarm of tiny probes each equipped with a different sensor could be fired into the clouds of Jupiter and grab data as they fall before burning up in the gas giant planet's atmosphere, according to a recently presented concept in International Journal of Space Scie
January 26, 2015
Observations made using Keck and Gemini observatories, Hawaii, revealed three massive volcanic eruptions on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week period in August 2013, leading astronomers to speculate that these presumed rare "outbursts" migh
August 09, 2014
The shrinkage of Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been known about since the 1930s but latest images by Hubble Space Telescope confirm the increasing shrinkage rate observed by amateur astronomers since 2012. Science has no answer as to why this is happening.H
May 15, 2014
The largest moon in our solar system, a companion to Jupiter named Ganymede, might have ice and oceans stacked up in several layers like a club sandwich, according to new study led by JPL's Steve Vance that models the moon's makeup.Previously, the moon
May 02, 2014
Data from the Hubble space telescope suggests that enormous jets of water, more than 200 kilometers tall, may be spurting intermittently from the surface of Europa, ice-shelled moon of Jupiter. Although it’s been known since 2005 that
December 12, 2013
On June 19, 2013 NASA`s SOHO coronagraphs observed an eclipse of Jupiter by the Sun, as the planet got directly behind the solar disk; being totally obscured. This event is a rare Jupiter solar conjunction, that happens only twice within Jupiter`s 12-year orbit around
June 19, 2013
Planet Jupiter began the month of June 2013 being positioned very low in the west sky just after sunset. However soon it will disappear into the solar glare, as Jupiter is approaching the Sun for a solar conjunction on June 19, 2013. At that time Jupiter will
June 14, 2013
Millions of infrared snapshots from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to a discovery of new and improved asteroid family members in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. NEOWISE all-sky survey identified 28 new
May 30, 2013
The three brightest planets in this month's night sky are lining up for a remarkable sunset conjunction at the end of May. On May 26, 2013, in a triple conjunction, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury will form a tight triangle only three degrees
May 23, 2013
May 2013 brings few interesting sky events. This years Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on May 6 with expected zenith hourly rate of 55 meteors per hour. We are about to experience annular solar eclipse on May 9/10. Annularity will be visible from
April 30, 2013
Observations by ESA's Herschel space observatory have revealed origin of water's mysterious presence in Jupiter's atmosphere. Using sensitive spectral imaging, researchers were able to confirm that water came from historic comet impact in July
April 26, 2013
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. It has hundreds of volcanoes and volcanic activity 25 times that of Earth. However, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers, the concentrations of volcanic activity are
April 17, 2013
Early in December NASA officials announced that they plan to launch a $1.5 billion rover to Mars in 2020. NASA investigates the possible habitability of Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon. One concept that may be gaining traction is a so-called "clipper" probe
December 26, 2012
This Christmas, the Moon and Jupiter are converging for a heavenly sky show. Jupiter and the Moon are only a degree or two apart, depending on your location (in the Americas) and the time of evening. If you watch through binoculars, you can see Aldebaran right...
December 22, 2012
Planetary astrophotographer Mike Phillips made amazing 8 second video of Jupiter. Mike filmed Jupiter through his home-made f/4.5 14″ Newtonian telescope for a consecutive 1.5 hours on September 12, 2012. He batched up groups of frames, stacked them together (to
September 30, 2012
Venus, Jupiter and the moon will gather together in the early morning sky Sunday (July 15). Set your alarm clock for around 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday and watch east-northeast sky. The crescent moon, just 13%i lluminated, appears in close proximity to the two
July 15, 2012
The brightest planets in the solar system are converging for a beautiful sunrise sky show in early July.Every morning this July, the two brightest planets (Venus –4.7 and Jupiter –2.1) in the solar system will put on a show before sunrise. Look out on east you
July 03, 2012
Venus and Jupiter are the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the Moon. Every evening Venus has appeared higher and Jupiter lower on the western sky. Now they're about to cross paths. From now until March 17th the two planets will be within 5°
March 11, 2012
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