New Horizons: Jupiter Encounter. Through 2007.

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jmilsom

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Nice work Anthmartian! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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anthmartian

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Thanks JMilsom. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Callisto can be overlooked, because it's not one of the most talked about moons. But, i'm sure on closer examination it could well be as fascinating as Europa.<br /><br />I have updated my home pages today with a few more images from New Horizons.<br /><br />http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth<br /><br />Included is this twin view. Top is a normal enhanced full size B&W LORRI image. From 2.7M km. Below it is a enlarged version of the same picture. But, with heightened contrast, and false colour added. Which brings out the volcano plume, and, well, it's nice to see colour!<br /><br />Please feel free to take these images and work further on them. It would be nice to see the results though. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em>"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"</em></font></p><p><font color="#33cccc"><strong>Han Solo - 1977 - A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....</strong></font></p><p><br /><br />Click Here And jump over to my site.<br /></p> </div>
 
3

3488

Guest
Hi Anthmartian,<br /><br />You could well be correct. Perhaps under close scrutiny, Callisto may be a dark horse.<br /><br />Ganymede clearly had a resurgence in activity about 1 GYA (brief spurt of activity).<br /><br />The reason for this is unclear, certainly Ganymede was put into a more elliptical orbit & that tidal stresses re-warmed the interior. <br /><br />One suggestion, a large planet sized & massed object (long since gone, possibly thrown into intersteller space, by Jupiter) back then, passed close to the Jupiter system, putting Ganymede into a temporary elliptical orbit. <br /><br />I wonder then, that if this was the case, why was Callisto unaffected (I suppose Callisto could have been on the far side of Jupiter, from the imposter, much like the position in relation to New Horizons) ?????<br /><br />Callisto certainly seems to be guarding its secrets well.<br /><br />Anyway, I have created a Family portrait of the Galileans (as has been done with the Voyager, Galileo & Hubble Space Telescope images), with the New Horizons LORRI images.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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anthmartian

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Nice work Andrew. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Yep, if you look at Ganymede and peer between the obvious newly laid surface features it starts to look a lot like Callisto.<br /><br />I always felt Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all have liquid oceans beneath an ice crust. Europa is the most flexed and shows more signs of water escaping to the surface.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em>"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"</em></font></p><p><font color="#33cccc"><strong>Han Solo - 1977 - A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....</strong></font></p><p><br /><br />Click Here And jump over to my site.<br /></p> </div>
 
3

3488

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Thanks Anthmartian.<br /><br />It is very true. Ganymede, particulalrly in Galileo Regio & Marius Regio does indeed look more like Callisto. <br /><br />The Galileo orbiter showed that these dark regions appeared to have low ridges & that they are concentric. Clearly they are impact related from a time very long gone. <br /><br />I think that if enough of Callisto was imaged to the same resolution, perhaps similar might be found. Because of Galileo's knackered HGA, this could not be accomplished (although we still got many very high res images of all four Galileans).<br /><br />Subsurface oceans, I am not as yet 100 % convinced. In the case of Europa, there IS real evidence, the extremely smooth surface & the fact that the outer ice shell, appears to be de-coupled from the interior (The surface of Europa completes an extra rotation every 500,000 years, so alternate sides face Jupiter every quarter of a million years).<br /><br />I still think Europa is active & I hope that further long exposure LORRI images may catch Europa geysers erupting. Also the crater density of Europa appears far too low for long periods of inactivity. Apart form Io, Europa is the most flexed (about 10% that of Io)!!!<br /><br />The short term burst of activity of Ganymede is still really mysterious. Crater counting of the re-surfaced areas seem to suggest about 1 GYA. Wonder what caused it??? I would love to know!!!!<br /><br />I enjoyed doing that unofficial montage of the four giant moons of Jupiter. I expect that yourseelf & rlb2 could do much better though.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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anthmartian

Guest
If New Horizons ( we should start saying "NH" ! ) was to capture something like we've seen at Enceladus going on at Europa. It would be amazing!<br /><br />So far the closest view of Europa released was taken from 3M km. The closest Io images 2.3M km so far released. I'm not sure if NH got a kind of backlit view like Cassini got of Enceladus, but if it did, with its incredible camera's and ranges of exposures i'm sure it would capture plumes on Europa if they were there to be seen at that time. maybe even without favourable lighting it could still do it, as it did with Io from a very long way out.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em>"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"</em></font></p><p><font color="#33cccc"><strong>Han Solo - 1977 - A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....</strong></font></p><p><br /><br />Click Here And jump over to my site.<br /></p> </div>
 
A

anthmartian

Guest
Carrying on from Andrews brilliant retro Voyager flavour image. <br /><br />I was inspired to put together something that reminded me of that old Voyager poster ( which used to be pinned to my bedroom wall in my youth, alongside Samantha Fox! Well her poster was, i never pinned Sam against my wall. *LOL* )<br /><br />The moon images are taken from my site, hopefully i'll be able to update this as more images are released. I have it available as a 1024x768 wallpaper on my site.<br /><br />http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em>"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"</em></font></p><p><font color="#33cccc"><strong>Han Solo - 1977 - A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....</strong></font></p><p><br /><br />Click Here And jump over to my site.<br /></p> </div>
 
3

3488

Guest
WOW that really cool.<br /><br />I have downloaded & printed your montage!!!!!<br /><br />GREAT.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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3488

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Europa as seen from New Horizons.<br /><br />LORRI camera.<br /><br />Wednesday 28th February 2007, from 3 million kilometres.<br /><br />Image taken from Anthmartian's website:<br /><br />http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth <br /><br />Europa has a diameter of: 3,126 kilometres, with an average global density of: 3.04 gm/cm3, with a surface gravity of 13.5% that of Earth.<br /><br />Europa orbits Jupiter at an average distance of: 670,900 km, once about every: 3 days, 13 hours & 12 minutes.<br /><br />Europa is covered in a surface of ice, on average reflecting 64% of the sunlight striking it. The surface is cold, averaging about minus 153 Celsius.<br /><br />However, the globe of Europa is not made from water, as the density as just over 3 x too great. During the repeated encounters with Europa, using the Galileo orbiter, Europa appears to have a metallic core probably iron (maybe iron sulphide), then a mantle of silicate rock then either:<br /><br />1) an ice layer on top of liquid water, <br /><br />or <br /><br />2): a frozen crust of ice.<br /><br />or<br /><br />3). A brittle hard ice crust, overlaying a layer of softer warmer convecting ice.<br /><br />Impact cratering on Europa is fairly light, crater counts suggesting that much of the current surface is less than 30 million years old. Considering Europa is about 4.6 billion years old, suggests that Europa is active. <br /><br />One area in particular, looks like ice rafts that have jostled & tilted, there are ice hills & valleys, long triple banded ridges, ice boulders, smooth features & lateral faulting. Europa's surface is also contaminated by sulpher from neighbouring Io's volcanoes.<br /><br />Another indication is that the surface of Europa does not appear to be directly in contact with the silicate mantle, completing an extra rotation, once every half a million years, which means that every 250,000 years, alternate hemisph <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
Q

qzzq

Guest
Thanks to all contributors for these wonderful updates and astonishing pictures. Truly breathtaking stuff! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
Hi qzzq,<br /><br />you are more than welcome. I have thoruoghly enjoyed sharing this event with other interested, like minded people. The Jupiter system, is just incredible (so are the Saturn, Uranus & Neptune systems too)!!!!<br /><br />So please, stay tuned!!!!<br />==============================================================================<br />The New Horizons Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) took this image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io at 04:30 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, about one hour before New Horizons' closest approach to Jupiter, from a range of 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles). Part of the Ralph imaging instrument, MVIC is designed for the very faint solar illumination at Pluto, and is too sensitive to image the brightly lit daysides of Jupiter's moons. Io's dayside is therefore completely overexposed in this image, and appears white and featureless. However, the Jupiter-lit nightside of Io and the giant plume from the Tvashtar volcano are well exposed, and the versions of the image shown here have been processed to bring out each of these features.<br /><br />The scale of the original image is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel; Io itself has a diameter of 3,630 kilometers (2,250 miles). <br /><br />The nightside of Io (left panel) is illuminated brightly enough by Jupiter to reveal many details in full color to MVIC’s sensitive vision. The nightside color has been corrected to account for the greenish hue of Jupiter's light as seen by MVIC – see the April 2 Featured Image of Io and Europa – so the colors approximate what the human eye would see in daylight illumination. The image shows Io's reddish-brown polar areas and the yellow and white colors of its equatorial regions, mostly due to various forms of sulfur. <br /><br />Several dark volcanic centers are also visible – the most prominent, appearing as an elongated spot just above and to the right of the disk’s center, is called Fjorgynn. Near the disk center, just over the n <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
Chandra X-ray Image of Jupiter<br />In preparation for New Horizon's approach, Chandra took exposures of Jupiter on February 8, 10, and 24th, 2007. The purpose of the Chandra observations is to study the powerful X-ray auroras observed near the poles of Jupiter. These are caused by interaction of sulfur and oxygen ions in the outer regions of the Jovian magnetic field with particles flowing away from the Sun in the so-called solar wind. Scientists would like to better understand the details of this process, which produces auroras up to a thousand times more powerful than similar auroras seen on Earth.<br /><br />(Credit: NASA/CXC/SwRI/R.Gladstone et al.)<br /><br />==============================================================================<br /><br />Chandra observation of Jovian Aurora in X Rays in support on New Horizons recent encounter.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
I must admit, I am feeling a little let down by the lack of recent updates. Perhaps nonimaging data is being downloaded at the moment.<br /><br />I hope very much that soon we will see the crescent departing Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto. Not to mention Jovian nocturnal images of lightning, aurora, etc.<br /><br />Also I am looking forward to the spectral, lightcurves, etc of the smaller captured type S (Silicate) asteroid outer moons, Himalia & Elara.<br /><br />There is still very much to look forward to, regarding New Horizons @ Jupiter.<br /><br />Hopefully Alan Stern is saving it all up, for a massive release.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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anthmartian

Guest
Yes, i was getting so excited. Then i read we had only received about 1000th of the data collected ( just after closest approach ) i got even more excited.<br /><br />I know much of the data was non image based. But still, i expected a lot more than this. <br /><br />Some images of Jupiter's clouds are from only about 0.2M km away from the 2.3M km closest approach distance. Where as Europa imagery remains distant, 3.0M km being the closest image yet released.<br /><br />A worrying fact is i have heard it quoted that New Horizons actually made more observations at Jupiter than it will at Pluto!<br /><br />Also, we were told we could expect around 8 to 10 images a week throughout April and May. That is not happening, but at least if that was the plan and they are not here yet, they must still be on board. I hope.<br /><br />Another point, the wording on the LORRI pages header at the New Horizons site says "some of the latest images" . So maybe we have only seen the images they have allowed us to see for whatever reason ( maybe they just recruited a former ESA web site publicity manager! )<br /><br />With MER and the many Raw images on the Cassini site we have got used to viewing almost all the images gathered by a mission. I do not think that is the case with New Horizon's. I also believe and agree with Andrew, i think other data has been given priority, and plans to release images every week have been put on hold. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em>"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"</em></font></p><p><font color="#33cccc"><strong>Han Solo - 1977 - A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....</strong></font></p><p><br /><br />Click Here And jump over to my site.<br /></p> </div>
 
3

3488

Guest
Hi Anthmartian.<br /><br />I hope nothing has gone wrong. You are correct, the realease of imagery is patchy!! I am absolutely glad however, we have the decent Io imagery & the Io observations I had personally requested.<br /><br />Yes it is true. New Horizons made 700 observations within the Jupiter system, twice the 350 observations that are expected at the Pluto system.<br /><br />Jupiter, Ganymede, Callisto, Io & Europa (put them in descending size order) are all considerably larger than Pluto, Charon, Hydra & Nix (also in descending size order), so the scale of these objects enable more observations, not to mention the amount of sunlight at Jupiter is 1/25th or 4% that @ Earth, where as at the Pluto system it is barely 1/1600th or 0.0625% that @ Earth or funnily enough 1/25th or 4% that @ Jupiter!!!<br /><br />Hence the greater number of observations at Jupiter also.<br /><br />Worth mentioning, the Pluto system in TOTAL amounts to only 8% the mass of our MOON or IO, or only 4% that of GANYMEDE or 5% that of CALLISTO. Pluto also is smaller & less massive than the Neptune moon TRITON & KBO ERIS.<br /><br />Although having said that, it may turn out to be one of the most interesting objects yet encountered. Possibly a varied surface with many geological features, an atmosphere of sorts & three moons, one large (Charon) with an abundance of crystalline ice & two midgets (Nix & Hydra)!!!<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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MeteorWayne

Guest
Hey, we haven't had one of these in a while... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
Thanks MeteorWayne.<br /><br />Heliocentric speed as of 15:00 UTC on Wednesday 25th April 2007: 77,076 KPH or 47,864 MPH.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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telfrow

Guest
<i>New Horizons took this image of the icy moon Europa rising above Jupiter’s cloud tops with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 11:48 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, six hours after the spacecraft’s closest approach to Jupiter.<br /><br />The picture was one of a handful of the Jupiter system that New Horizons took primarily for artistic, rather than scientific, value. This particular scene was suggested by space enthusiast Richard Hendricks of Austin, Texas, in response to an Internet request by New Horizons scientists for evocative, artistic imaging opportunities at Jupiter.<br /><br />The spacecraft was 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Jupiter and 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Europa when the picture was taken. Europa's diameter is 3,120 kilometers (1,939 miles). The image is centered on Europa coordinates 5 degrees south, 6 degrees west. In keeping with its artistic intent - and to provide a more dramatic perspective - the image has been rotated so south is at the top. </i><br /><br />Link<br /><br /><font color="yellow"><b>Wow.</b></font>/safety_wrapper> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>
 
B

brellis

Guest
I wanna think up images like this when I grow up. Amazing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>
 
J

jmilsom

Guest
Stunning. Oh to be born a couple of hundred years in the future. Will we ever be cruising around our gas giants? Imagine the view! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
Thanks telfrow. An amazing image indeed.<br /><br />This amazing color portrait of Jupiter’s “Little Red Spot†(LRS) combines high-resolution images from the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken at 03:12 UT on February 27, 2007, with color images taken nearly simultaneously by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope. The LORRI images provide details as fine as 9 miles across (15 kilometers), which is approximately 10 times better than Hubble can provide on its own. The improved resolution is possible because New Horizons was only 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers) away from Jupiter when LORRI snapped its pictures, while Hubble was more than 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) away from the Gas Giant planet.<br /><br />The Little Red Spot is the second largest storm on Jupiter, roughly 70% the size of the Earth, and it started turning red in late-2005. The clouds in the Little Red Spot rotate counterclockwise, or in the anticyclonic direction, because it is a high-pressure region. In that sense, the Little Red Spot is the opposite of a hurricane on Earth, which is a low-pressure region – and, of course, the Little Red Spot is far larger than any hurricane on Earth.<br /><br />Scientists don't know exactly how or why the Little Red Spot turned red, though they speculate that the change could stem from a surge of exotic compounds from deep within Jupiter, caused by an intensification of the storm system. In particular, sulfur-bearing cloud droplets might have been propelled about 50 kilometers into the upper level of ammonia clouds, where brighter sunlight bathing the cloud tops released the red-hued sulfur embedded in the droplets, causing the storm to turn red. A similar mechanism has been proposed for the Little Red Spot's "older brother," the Great Red Spot, a massive energetic storm system that has persisted for over a century. <br /><br />New Horizons is providing an opportunity to examine an †<div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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3488

Guest
Io through different eyes.<br /><br />This montage demonstrates New Horizons' ability to observe the same target in complementary ways using its diverse suite of instruments. Previously released views taken at visible and slightly longer infrared wavelengths with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), New Horizons’ high-resolution black-and-white camera, and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), its color camera, are here compared with a nearly simultaneous view from the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), which observes its targets in more than 200 separate wavelengths of infrared light. This color LEISA view of Io (bottom right) combines three wavelength ranges, centered at 1.80, 2.04, and 2.31 micrometers.<br /><br />The LORRI image (left) shows fine details on Io's sunlit crescent and in the partially sunlit plume from the Tvashtar volcano, and reveals the bright nighttime glow of the hot lavas at the source of the Tvashtar plume. The MVIC image (top right) shows the contrasting colors of the red lava and blue plume at Tvashtar, and the sulfur and sulfur dioxide deposits on Io's sunlit surface. The LEISA image shows that the glow of the Tvashtar volcano is even more intense at infrared wavelengths and reveals the infrared glow of at least 10 fainter volcanic hot spots on the moon’s nightside. The brightest of these, Amirani/Maui, which is visible to the lower right of Tvashtar, is less than 4% as bright as Tvashtar. All of these are long-lived hot spots that have been observed previously by the Galileo orbiter. Further analysis of the LEISA data will provide information on the volcanoes’ temperatures, and data on the sunlit crescent of Io will reveal details of Io's surface composition.<br /><br />The LORRI, MVIC and LEISA images were taken March 1, 2007, at 00:35, 00:25 and 00:31 Universal Time, respectively, from a range of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The images are centered at Io coordinates 4 degrees south, 164 deg <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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This unusual image shows Io glowing in the darkness of Jupiter's shadow. It is a combination of eight images taken by the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) between 14:25 and 14:55 Universal Time on February 27, 2007, about 15 hours before the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter. North is at the top of the image.<br /><br />Io's surface is invisible in the darkness, but the image reveals glowing hot lava, auroral displays in Io's tenuous atmosphere and volcanic plumes across the moon. The three bright points of light on the right side of Io are incandescent lava at active volcanoes - Pele and Reiden (south of the equator), and a previously unknown volcano near 22 degrees north, 233 degrees west near the edge of the disk at the 2 o'clock position.<br /><br />An auroral glow, produced as intense radiation from Jupiter's magnetosphere bombards Io’s atmosphere, outlines the edge of the moon’s disk. The glow is patchy because the atmosphere itself is patchy, being denser over active volcanoes. In addition to the near-surface glow, there is a remarkable auroral glow suspended 330 kilometers (200 miles) above the edge of the disk at the 2 o'clock position; perhaps this glowing gas was ejected from the new volcano below it. Another glowing gas plume, above a fainter point of light, is visible just inside Io's disk near the 6 o'clock position; this plume is above another new volcanic eruption discovered by New Horizons.<br /><br />On the left side of the disk, near Io's equator, a cluster of faint dots of light is centered near the point on Io that always faces Jupiter. This is the region where electrical currents connect Io to Jupiter's magnetosphere. It is likely that electrical connections to individual volcanoes are causing the glows seen here, though the details are mysterious.<br /><br />Total exposure time for this image was 16 seconds. The range to Io was 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles), and the image is centered at Io coordinates 7 deg <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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This montage compares New Horizons' best views of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, gathered with the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and its infrared spectrometer, the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). <br /><br />LEISA observes its targets in more than 200 separate wavelengths of infrared light, allowing detailed analysis of their surface composition. The LEISA image shown here combines just three of these wavelengths - 1.3, 1.8 and 2.0 micrometers - to highlight differences in composition across Ganymede's surface. Blue colors represent relatively clean water ice, while brown colors show regions contaminated by dark material.<br /><br />The right panel combines the high-resolution grayscale LORRI image with the color-coded compositional information from the LEISA image, producing a picture that combines the best of both data sets.<br /><br />The LEISA and LORRI images were taken at 9:48 and 10:01 Universal Time, respectively, on February 27, 2007, from a range of 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles). The longitude of the disk center is 38 degrees west. With a diameter of 5,268 kilometers (3,273 miles), Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system.<br /><br />Release Date: May 1, 2007.<br /><br />Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute<br /><br />High resolution here. Ganymede through different eyes.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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