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Forbes
Forbes
Science
Jesse Shanahan, Contributor

What Causes Jupiter's Iconic Striped Appearance?

A sequence of 14 enhanced-color images from NASA’s Juno spacecraft’s closest pass by the planet Jupiter.

Other than Saturn’s rings, the most recognizable planetary feature in the Solar System is arguably Jupiter’s striped atmosphere, which has captivated human interest dating back to the Babylonian astronomers of the 7th century BCE. More recently, NASA’s Juno mission, which arrived at Jupiter in July 2016, has given scientists an unprecedented view of the complex Jovian storms. At times, Juno’s pictures of the rich colors and swirling gases have been mistaken for oil paintings instead of scientific images of a distant planet.

In a statement released Friday, August 10th, a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) explained results from a new study showing that, while the variety of colors in the atmosphere come from the chemical composition of the gases, the banding pattern is generated by alternating winds akin to Earth’s jet streams. Because Jupiter lacks terrain of any kind, there are no topographical features to disrupt the winds, resulting in mostly uniform stripes. Curiously, below the layer of stripes, which make up just 4% of the total depth of the Jovian clouds, the gases move homogeneously as a single, unified mass.

A high-altitude cloud formation on Jupiter imaged by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

The aforementioned team recently published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal that elucidated the mechanism preventing banding deep within Jupiter’s atmosphere. The study discovered that Jupiter’s magnetic fields could prevent discrete streams from forming. The magnetized gas below the striped flows instead moves as a cohesive, single object rather than complex system of individual winds. Not only did Juno reveal the importance of Jupiter’s magnetic field, but it also measured that it is highly irregular. It is the interaction between this asymmetry and the mostly linear jet streams that result in the swirling, Impressionist images taken by Juno.

Intricate cloud patterns in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

For decades, scientists have known Jupiter’s weather involves massive storms, complex cloud structures, and even lightning. Data from the Juno mission also revealed that, while the physics that gives rise to Jupiter’s lightning is similar, the location of the lightning is significantly different than on Earth. On Jupiter, the predominant mechanism for heating the atmosphere is from the planet itself whereas Earth’s atmosphere is heated primarily by the Sun’s radiation. Consequently, in contrast to Earth’s equatorial storms, the lightning on Jupiter is concentrated entirely on the poles instead of the equator. Although this discovery solves a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decands, it not only is an advancement in the scientific understanding of Jupiter’s storms, but it provides a unique opportunity for scientists to study exoplanetary atmospheres as well.

An artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments.

Planetary scientists that study the atmospheres of exoplanets – planets that orbit distant stars – can utilize Jupiter as a laboratory to study the clouds and weather of gas giant planets. Due to their size, gas giants are still the most common type of exoplanet discovered, and improving technology is enabling scientists to actually measure the atmospheres of these distant Jupiter-sized planets. However, these planets are so far away that the data is incredibly difficult to obtain and analyze accurately. By understanding how similar cloud systems, storms, and weather arise on analogous planets in the Solar System, scientists can make a critical step towards analyzing not only the atmospheres but ultimately the habitability of these remote worlds.

This composite image provided by NASA, derived from data collected by the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, shows the central cyclone at the planet’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. Jupiter’s poles are blanketed by geometric clusters of cyclones and its atmosphere is deeper than suspected, scientists reported Wednesday, March 7, 2018. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM via AP)
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