PIA24968: Movement at Jupiter's South Pole


Movement at Jupiter’s South Pole

Caption:

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This animation depicts the invisible forces at work at Jupiter's south pole that keep the five circumpolar cyclones there in position relative to each other and to the polar cyclone – the central cyclone directly over the pole.

Blue arrows depict the forces that drive the cyclones southward, toward the polar cyclone. Green arrows depict the rejections force generated by the polar cyclone, preventing the circumpolar cyclones from occupying the pole position. Pink arrows demonstrate mutual forces the circumpolar cyclones project, causing them to remain an equal distance from one another, in a pentagonal configuration.

Background Info:

Data used to generate this animation was acquired by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. JIRAM "sees" in infrared light not visible to the human eye. It was designed to capture the infrared light emerging from deep inside Jupiter, probing the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below Jupiter's cloud tops.

More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Jupiter
System Jupiter
Target Type Planet
Mission Juno
Instrument Host Juno
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Juno Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) Jupiter Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Infrared
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2021-10-28
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24968
Identifier PIA24968