atmosphere: jupiter’s atmosphere has two basic features. 1) changing parallel bands aligned with...

Atmosphere:Jupiter’s atmosphere has two basic features. 1) Changing parallel bands aligned with the equator, and2) the Great Red Spot.

The Great Red Spot is an Earth-sized hurricane that has been observed for 100’s of years.

Gases:

H2 - 86%

He - 13%CH4, NH3, and H2O - <1%

One question to be answered is whether chemical reactions cause the different colors in the atmosphere or could it be organic compounds??

Atmospheric Bands –

bright-colored ZONES - upward-moving currents, high pressure areas.

dark-colored BELTS -downward moving currents, low-pressure areas.

The rapid rotation rate has caused these bands to circle the planet. The zones are slightly higher in the atmosphere than the belts. Differences in temperature causes the differences in color.

Jupiter also has small-scale weather patterns, e.g. the Great Red Spot.The Great Red Spot is at least 300 years old.

Its size varies but is twice the size of Earth on the average.

The flow of the gases in the GRS is counterclockwise.

It rotates the planet at a rate similar to the rotation of the interior.

Photographs of the dark side of Jupiter show auroral activity and flashes that are probably due to lightning.

Lightning

Other hurricane type storms are white ovals. These rotate counterclockwise and are higher in the atmosphere.

There are also brown ovals. These are lower in the atmosphere and only occur around 20° north latitude.

Jupiter emits about twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun; therefore, it must have its own internal heat source.

It was believed for a short time that this might be caused by star-like fusion at Jupiter’s core. Jupiter was like a small star. But this is no longer believed to be true.

It is believed that this is the slow escape of gravitational energy left over after Jupiter’s formation. This loss is very small compared to the planet’s total energy.

Internal Structure – The clouds on Jupiter are less than 200 km thick. At a depth of a few thousand km the gas transitions into a liquid.

At a depth of about 20,000 km hot liquid hydrogen gas becomes “metallic” and is an excellent conductor.

Jupiter is believed to have a small, dense core which is approximately 15 times Earth’s mass. It is probably made up of “rocky” materials.

The central core temperature of Jupiter is about 40,000K!!

Jupiter’s magnetosphere is 30 million km across; 1 million times larger than Earth’s. This is far larger than the entire Sun. The large tail produced by the solar wind extends at least as far as Saturn’s orbit.

In the inner magnetosphere, Jupiter’s rapid rotation has forced most of the charged particles into a flat current sheet lying along the magnetic equator.

Jupiter’s magnetic field strength is 20,000 times greater than Earth’s.