Recent ultraviolet images of Jupiter, released by the University of California, Berkeley, showcase the planet's polar regions in unprecedented detail. The images highlight the Great Red Spot as a blue oval and reveal brown hazes thought to be caused by high-altitude vortices mixing the atmosphere. The mechanisms behind these phenomena remain under investigation, potentially linked to Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, boasts a diameter of 143,000 km and is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium. Its atmosphere features alternating bands of color, intense storms, and winds reaching speeds of 640 km/hr. The Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane system, is one of its most iconic characteristics, alongside its family of moons, including Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
The newly released images reveal Earth-sized oval features around Jupiter's polar regions, observable only in ultraviolet wavelengths. These ovals consistently appear at lower latitudes than the auroral zones and appear darker due to the absorption of ultraviolet radiation.
The Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting Earth at an altitude of 540 km, has been capturing images of Jupiter annually. It was the first to document the UV ovals, later confirmed by the Cassini spacecraft. Research indicates these features are more prevalent around Jupiter's south pole, appearing in 75% of images compared to only 12% around the north pole.
Experts Tom Stallard from Northumbria University and Xi Zhang from UC Santa Cruz are collaborating to understand the underlying mechanisms. They propose that friction within Jupiter's ionosphere, influenced by the planet's magnetic field, may lead to the formation of the observed vortices, which in turn drive the dark ovals.