“One frame of this image was taken each Jupiter day (approximately 10 hours) between January 6 and February 9, 1979, as the space probe [Voyager I] flew from 58 million to 31 million kilometers from Jupiter during that time. The small, round, dark spots appearing in some frames are the shadows cast by the moons passing between Jupiter and the Sun, while the small, white flashes around the planet, are the moons themselves.”
Inspired by the gorgeous shot of Jupiter’s ‘Great Red Spot’ tizmatti posted a couple of weeks back, I decided to read up on Jupiter’s unique atmosphere. Turns out it’s a pretty tumultuous place comprised of constantly shifting cloud layers and swirling, violent vortices (of which the ‘Great Red Spot’ is the largest). It’s truly fascinating stuff.
[ NASA: Jupiter via Wikipedia ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 08, 2011 in Pictures | tags: animated gif, astronomy, jupiter, nasa, science, space, time lapse, voyager