Here's Jupiter Like You've Never Seen It Before As Astronomers 'Get Lucky'

[Judi Lynn]

May 8, 2020,02:00am EDT

Jamie Carter Senior Contributor



This image showing the entire disk of Jupiter in infrared light was compiled from a mosaic of nine ... [+] INTERNATIONAL GEMINI OBSERVATORY/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA, M.H. WONG (UC BERKELEY) AND TEAM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: MAHDI ZAMANI

Some of the highest resolution images of Jupiter ever obtained from the ground have been shot from the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea volcano.

Remarkably, when combined with those of the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Juno mission at Jupiter, the resulting multi-wavelength images reveal lightning strikes.

They also reveal something new about Jupiter's “Great Red Spot.”

More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/05/08/heres-jupiter-like-youve-never-seen-it-before-as-astronomers-get-lucky/#bf1db6735cf8

[progree]

1. People can see Jupiter in the pre-dawn hours and dawn in the southeast or south sky

it's a very bright white steady "star", magnitude -2.4, which is significantly brighter than even the brightest star anywhere in the sky.

To its east a very short distance (about a degree or two) is Saturn -- much less bright) and then further southeast another about 10 degrees is Mars.

The sky at your time and location (or any date, time, location)
https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

below and to the left of the sky circle is a "Display" box - uncheck the "Deep Sky" to get rid of the clutter that you probably can't see unless you live 50 miles from the nearest streetlamp.

For evening people, Venus is visible after sunset in the western or northwestern sky near the horizon -- a super-bright steady white light (magnitude -4.5 -- unintuitively, the more negative the magnitude, the brighter it is).

[eppur_se_muova]

2. White?!? I've always been able to spot Jupiter based on its intense yellow color alone.

You're right about the three outer visible planets all being visible at once. In the evening, Venus and Mercury are both visible, and will be at their closest angular separation on 21 or 22 May, depending on your Geographic location.

So catch Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the morning and Mercury and Venus in the evening, and you can say you saw all five visible planets on the same day!





Lots more detail, including links for each planet, at https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury?

[progree]

3. Thanks for info. It's so light-polluted where I live that all's I see for Jupiter is bright white

People tell me that Spica is a pretty blue, and I can just make out a little bit of a bluish tinge if I really try hard to see it.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Sad to hear that. I few years ago, I was driving along a highway in western TN at night ...

and had to pull over just to look at the night sky. There were no buildings, no streetlights, and most of the time, no other vehicles nearby. The sky was so dark and clear that I could hardly make out any constellations for all the unfamiliar stars cluttering the view! Unfortunately, my glasses prescription was badly out of date at the time, which didn't help. It was a reminder of how much of Nature we miss out on in our technologically developed society.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

5. Wow, in the infrared photo Jupiter looks like a brown dwarf star.