Hubble Images of Jupiter

Galileo's Probe Entry Site

February 13, 1995

This view of Jupiter has been constructed from images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope on Feb. 13, 1995. The predicted latitude and longitude of the entry site of the Galileo Probe is marked by the small black arrow near the center of the planet. These data were obtained with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in the high resolution mode, which provides more than 800 samples from pole-to-pole on the planet. Because the disk of Jupiter is larger than the field-of-view of the camera, red, green and blue images from two consecutive orbits of the telescope are required to observe the whole disk. These data have been computer processed to provide this color image.

At the latitude of probe entry the visible clouds are swept eastward by strong prevailing winds at speeds of more than 200 miles/hour (110-120 m/sec), displacing the observed cloud structures about 7.5 degrees a day, thus in about 48 days the clouds will lap the entire planet.

Contact Reta Beebe for further information.

Reta Beebe 
Astronomy Department
New Mexico State University 
FAX 505-646-1602
email rbeebe@nmsu.edu

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Jupiter as Seen by Hubble in October 1995

The Best View prior to Probe Entry

FULL DISK IMAGE : This image of Jupiter was obtained with the high resolution mode of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on Oct. 5, 1995. Because the disk of the planet is larger than the field of view of the camera, image processing was utilized to combine images from three overlapping orbits to produce this full disk view of the planet. The arrow indicates the latitude and longitude of the predicted entry site at which the Galileo Probe will enter Jupiter's atmosphere on December 7, 1995 at 22 hours UT. At this latitude, the eastward winds have speeds of 110 m/s (about 250 mph), while the white oval to the north of the probe site moves westward at a speed of 6 m/s (13 mph), rolling in the winds which increase sharply toward the equator.

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TIME SEQUENCE : These images of Jupiter's equatorial region illustrate the manner in which the clouds sweep across the predicted probe entry site. The first image was obtained on Oct. 4, 1995 at 18 hours UT. The second, third and fourth images were obtained 10, 20 and 60 hours later, respectively. The small dot is centered at the predicted site of the Galileo probe entry into Jupiter's atmosphere at: 4.39 W System III longitude and 6.55 N planetocentric (7.48 graphic) latitude. The maps extend +/- 15 deg. in latitude and longitude. The distance across one of these maps is 37433 km (about 3 Earth diameters). Thus, in the intervening time between the first and fourth maps, the winds have swept the clouds 24000 km (15000 miles) eastward.

Credit:   R. Beebe, A. Simon, and C. Walter
             Department of Astronomy
             New Mexico State University

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