NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected a high-speed jet stream spanning more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide that sits over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks. Researchers hope that this discovery will provide insights into how the layers of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere interact with each other.
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) was able to capture images of the gas giant 10 hours apart, or one Jupiter day, in four different filters, each uniquely able to detect changes in small features at different altitudes of its atmosphere back in July 2022. This massive jet stream travels at approximately 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour), twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane on our own planet.
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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,” said Imke de Pater, Researcher from the University of California.
