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New research into Jupiter's fourth largest moon has revealed that the orbiting body contains enough oxygen to support complex, Earth-like lifeforms. Though it has long been known that Europa has an oxygen-rich oceanic environment, this latest research indicates that the actual oxygen level found in the moon's copious bodies of water is up to 100 times greater than previously imagined. With oxygen being a key component for life as we know it, this discovery no doubt has scientists imagining adorable Spore-style critters swimming the frigid Europan waves, before running headlong into the cruel wall of reality. As PhysOrg explains, though...

Crater patterns on Vesta and Ceres could help pinpoint when Jupiter began to form during the evolution of the early Solar System. A study modelling the cratering history of the largest two objects in the asteroid belt, which are believed to be among the oldest in the Solar System, indicates that the type and distribution of craters would show marked changes at different stages of Jupiter’s development. Results will be presented by Dr Diego Turrini at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Monday 14 September. The study, carried out by scientists at the Italian National Institute for...

Like a mushroom shooting out spores, a well-known comet was seen firing multiple "mini comets" that went sailing away at up to 280 miles (451 kilometers) an hour, astronomers have announced. The fragments were recently revealed in high-resolution images of comet Holmes, a relatively small body discovered in 1892 that mysteriously erupted in 2007, when the above images were taken. (Black-ringed dots moving in the images are background stars.) Over several days astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea watched the 2.2-mile-wide (3.5-kilometer-wide) cloud of dust surrounding the comet swell to become larger than the sun. Later, closer looks...

Tonight, when the sun sets, go outside and look southeast. The full Moon is having a close encounter with Jupiter. The two are so bright, you won't even need a sky map to find them.

Jupiter took a bullet for us last weekend. An object, probably a comet that nobody saw coming, plowed into the giant planet’s colorful cloud tops sometime Sunday, splashing up debris and leaving a black eye the size of the Pacific Ocean. This was the second time in 15 years that this had happened. The whole world was watching when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell apart and its pieces crashed into Jupiter in 1994, leaving Earth-size marks that persisted up to a year. That’s Jupiter doing its cosmic job, astronomers like to say. Better it than us. Part of what makes the...

Hubble has trained its new camera on the atmospheric disturbance on Jupiter believed to have been caused by a comet or asteroid impact. The telescope used the Wide Field Camera 3 fitted on the recent shuttle servicing mission to capture ultra-sharp visible-light images of the scar. The dark spot near the gas giant's southern pole was noticed first by an amateur Australian astronomer.

Jupiter's New Impact Scar Credit & Copyright: Anthony Wesley Explanation: In July of 1994 pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with planet Jupiter. The explosive impacts sent plumes of debris high into the Jovian atmosphere creating dark markings or scars, visible for a time against the cloud bands. Remarkably, 15 years later, another impact scar was discovered in the Jovian atmosphere by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley as he examined images of the gas giant taken from his home observatory just outside Murrumbateman NSW Australia. Jupiter's south pole is at the top in this July 19 discovery image, with Jupiter rotating...

Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact.

Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact. New infrared images show the likely impact point was near the south polar region, with a...

This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility As we reported yesterday, an amateur astronomer snapped evidence of an impact on Jupiter. Now, NASA has confirmed the black spot on the giant gas planet is in fact an impact and not just a weather-related disturbance. And Anthony Wesley has now made the biggest observation of his life. "It still feels very surreal right now," he told Universe Today. "I guess it will take...

Jupiter’s new black spot The black spot is at the top of this image. I just saw on Twitter (hard to believe I ever thought Twitter was useless) that Jupiter is sporting a new black spot near its south pole. You can see it in the picture here (click to go to the source and embiggen). People on Twitter (and on that site linked above) are speculating that this is the result of a large impact on Jupiter, similar to what happened in 1994 when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the big planet. But I think that’s premature; weather changes...

From July 16 through July 22, 1994, pieces of an object designated as Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. This is the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be observed, and the effects of the comet impacts on Jupiter's atmosphere have been simply spectacular and beyond expectations. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 consisted of at least 21 discernable fragments with diameters estimated at up to 2 kilometers.

Global warming activists need to explain a news story last night. It appears that the Great Red Spot on the planet Jupiter is shrinking. Scientists theorize that this is a result of... planetary climate change. Based on meteorological observations of the planet's surface, it is believed that the poles are getting cooler, while the equator is getting warmer. As a result of this (or perhaps vice-versa; these planetary phenomena are not well understood), certain persistent storms are growing stronger while others (including said Red Spot) are weakening. Of course, Jupiter's climate change is due to natural phenomena, while we are...

« Edwin Salpeter and the Gasbags of Jupiter By Larry Klaes‘The Gasbags of Jupiter’ sounds for all the world like the title of an early 1930s novel that would have run in a venue like Science Wonder Stories. In fact, as Larry Klaes tells us below, the idea grew out of Carl Sagan’s speculations about free-floating life-forms that might populate the atmospheres of gas giant planets like Jupiter. Cornell physicist Edwin Salpeter had much to do with the evolution of that concept, helping Sagan produce a paper that was a classic of informed imagination (and one that led to...

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - Plans to move forward with an estimated $3-billion project to send a spacecraft to one of Jupiter's moons is ensuring jobs as much as its ensuring discoveries. Officials at the La Canada Flintridge-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory say a 10-year project resulting in a mission to Europa will offer some stability in a fleeting job market. "Right now we have another exploration goal," JPL spokeswoman Veronica McGregor said. "We do need future missions for our staff to be able to move on, to do more work. So, obviously having a new mission on our plate is fantastic."...

The scarred surface of Europa may be due to the push and pull of Jupiter's gravity (Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Colorado) Strong ocean tidal flow and heating on moons of the outer planets Robert H. Tyler Applied Physics Laboratory and Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, Washington 98105, USA Correspondence to: Robert H. Tyler1Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.H.T. (Email: tyler@apl.washington.edu). Data from recent space missions have added strong support for the idea that there are liquid oceans on several moons of the outer planets, with Jupiter's moon...

The biggest moon in the solar system is Ganymede, the third large moon out from Jupiter. Larger than Mercury, Ganymede has a heterogeneous surface of dark and light areas (picture), grooved terrain, abrupt changes of landforms, and bright splashes where impacts have scarred its icy surface (gallery). What goes on inside, though, is more surprising: it has an intrinsic magnetic field. Researchers could only make it last for the assumed age of the solar system by appealing to “special conditions” that are not necessarily compatible with theories of its formation...

Australians are getting a big hello from the heavens as Venus, Jupiter and a waxing crescent moon combine to create a celestial smiley face. The best time to see the friendly phenomenon is about 20 to 30 minutes after sunset, report the News Corporation's Australian newspapers.

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1. A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

Just after sunset tonight, and in the weeks and months to come, look to the south west and you'll see two amazingly bright 'star-like' objects. They are the planets Venus and Jupiter. Venus is by far the brighter of the two and is directly 'below' Jupiter at this time (as we see them in the sky). By December 1st, they will be joined by the Moon, making for what the pros say will be the best easily viewed sky show of 2008 (no telescope or binoculars needed). In fact, Venus is so bright at this time that it can be...

I gathered the following five sky maps from the website heavens-above.com. They show the apparent eastward movement of Venus over the next two weeks. Venus is now extremely bright and easily seen by naked eye hanging in the southwest sky at, and possibly a bit before, sunset (Venus is currently setting a little over 2 hours after the Sun). In fact, it is so bright at this time that it can be, and often is, mistaken for the headlight of an approaching airplane or hovering helicopter. Anyway, once you find Venus (duh), look not too far to the upper left...

Venus and Jupiter, the two normally brightest planets in our sky, are moving closer in skies worldwide, and will group in the most spectacular conjunction of two planets seen in several years at the end of November. The two reach just over 2 degrees apart in our sky on Nov. 29, and are slightly closer on Nov. 30. Until Dec. 1 (when the two planets lie nearly parallel), look for bright, whitish Jupiter in the southwestern sky above brighter Venus. Jupiter and Venus are both highest each evening in evening twilight but lose altitude early, setting in the west-southwest around...

Jupiter Core is as Big as Uranus or Neptune ByJupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by UC Berkeley and University of Arizona scientists. Burkhard Militzer, an assistant professor of astronomy and earth and planetary science at Cal, simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. The simulation predicted the properties of hydrogen and helium for temperature, density and pressure at the surface, all the way to the planet's center. The technique is often used to study semi-conductors, according to a UC...

As Jupiter reached opposition earlier this week, it put on a spectacular show of cannibalism for anyone viewing with modest telescopes. Planetary specialists around the world have been watching with bated breath as a cataclysmic encounter between Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS), Oval BA (Red, Jr.), and the newly discovered Little Red Spot (LRS) unfolded at the beginning of July. Though encounters such as this are relatively common on the gas giant, this event was greatly anticipated because the LRS was strong enough to dredge up material from deeper within Jupiter's atmosphere, imbuing it with the same reddish color as...

Australian astronomers may have found a solution to how far-away Jupiter and Saturn drive the sun's solar cycle. In a paper published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, astronomer Dr Ian Wilson and colleagues from the University of Southern Queensland, suggest Jupiter and Saturn affect the sun's movement and its rotation, and hence its sunspot activity. Every 11 years the sun undergoes a period of intense solar activity, marked by flares, coronal mass ejections and sunspots. This period is known as the solar maximum and occurs twice each solar, or Hale, cycle. "The sun can be thought...

Well, not really. But according to this post from NASA, cliamte change is occuring on Jupiter. The planet is getting warmer, so there must be SUVs, or power plants, or factories, or all of them somewhere on Jupiter...and they're almost certainly man-made. After all, since Al Gore says natural cliamte change is patently impossible here on Earth, there's no way it couls be happening naturally on Jupiter. Or Mars, since global warming was cited there, too, last year. We evil humans! Exporting our environmental devastation to the rest of the solar system. We must be stopped!

For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. ... Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely...

While the former vice president is leading the charge for drastically changing the way humans do business in a bid to avert catastrophic, man-made global warming, scientists reported today there is noticeable climate change taking place on Jupiter, too. The news follows reports as far back as three years ago that ice caps on Mars are also retreating much as some of the ice in the Earth's Artic circle. Three's one striking difference between Earth and the other two planets' however. Neither Jupiter or Mars has any people - and no artificial activity creating so-called "greenhouses gases" like carbon dioxide...

New red spot appears on Jupiter Feature may be an indicator of global climate change on the planet. In what's beginning to look like a case of planetary measles, a third red spot has appeared next to its cousins — the Great Red Spot and Red Spot, Jr. — in the turbulent jovian atmosphere. This spot, which is a fraction of the size of the two other features, lies to the west of the Great Red Spot in the same latitude band of clouds. The new spot was previously a white, oval-shaped storm. The change to a red color indicates...

Third red spot erupts on Jupiter 18:03 22 May 2008 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga Three red spots now adorn Jupiter – the Great Red Spot at right, Red Spot Junior at lower left and the third red spot just above it, as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope (Image: NASA/ESA/M Wong/I de Pater/University of California, Berkeley) A third giant red storm has flared up on Jupiter, joining the Great Red Spot and the recently developed Red Spot Junior. The spot, along with new measurements of record-high wind speeds on Red Spot Junior, suggest the solar system's largest planet is...

Newfound glowing spots on Jupiter seem unexpectedly to come from electron beams whipping around the giant planet's volcanic moon Io. Io is the most volcanic body in the solar system, with its entire surface likely made up of lava from the moon's hundreds of volcanoes. Io also causes glowing spots hundreds of miles across on its mother planet that are similar to the aurora borealis or northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere on Earth. As Jupiter spins, its magnetic field sweeps past Io, stripping off roughly 1 ton (about 1,000 kilograms) of matter off Io every second. This matter becomes...

If successful at mapping lake terrain Wisconsin and Antarctica, it could be used to search for life in the ocean on Jupiter's moon Researchers from NASA and the University of Illinois at Chicago atop the frozen surface of Wisconsin's Lake Mendota this week are preparing for interplanetary exploration. Below them, under a sheet of ice more than a foot (30 centimeters) thick, the space agency's new Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-Ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer (ENDURANCE) maps the lake's underwater terrain. If this and subsequent voyages are successful, a similar vessel could be sent to navigate the suspected liquid water under the frozen...

Climate change by Jupiter Lawrence Solomon Financial Post Saturday, November 10, 2007 The alignment of the planets, and especially that of Jupiter and Saturn, control the climate on Earth. So explained Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University, a giant in science over much of the last century whose accomplishments are perhaps unsurpassed for their breadth, depth, and volume. This one man authored or co-authored 100 scientific books and more than 1,000 scientific papers, he edited the Benchmarks in Geology series (more than 90 volumes in print) and was general editor of the Encyclopaedias of the Earth Sciences. He edited eight major...

mages sent back from New Horizons earlier this year show stormy features similar to Earth's, including lightning on both of Jupiter's poles. Enlarge Photo Printer Friendly Email to a Friend RELATED Virtual Solar System Photo in the News: Jupiter Spawns a New Red Spot (March 7, 2006) NASA Probe Heads to Pluto (January 19, 2006) The images suggest the storms are caused by the heat from the planet itself, rather than the sun, and are maintained by circulation patterns that could be global in scale. Perhaps even more important, Jupiter's weather appears to be different than it was when NASA...

Jupiter increases risk of comet strike on Earth 11:53 24 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga Earth experienced an especially heavy bombardment of asteroids and comets early in the solar system's history (Illustration: Julian Baum) Contrary to prevailing wisdom, Jupiter does not protect Earth from comet strikes. In fact, Earth would suffer fewer impacts without the influence of Jupiter's gravity, a new study says. It could have implications for determining which solar systems are most hospitable to life. A 1994 study showed that replacing Jupiter with a much smaller planet like Uranus or Neptune would lead to 1000 times...

May 2, 2007—Jupiter's most turbulent moon, Io, is renowned among scientists for its flashy volcanic displays. But even experts were surprised when they saw this plume of gas vaulting nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the moon's north pole. The giant frozen jet—about as tall as the state of New Hampshire is long—spewed from a volcano known as Tvashtar in February, just as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was cruising by on its way to Pluto. The passing craft captured several images of the event, providing an unprecedented view of volcanism on Io, the most geologically active body in the solar...

ALBUQUERQUE, March 19 (UPI) -- U.S. government scientists have developed technology that can turn water into ice in nanoseconds. Researchers at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, however, caution the ice is hotter than the boiling point of water. "The three phases of water as we know them --cold ice, room temperature liquid and hot vapor -- are actually only a small part of water's repertory of states," said Sandia researcher Daniel Dolan. "Compressing water customarily heats it. But under extreme compression, it is easier for dense water to enter its solid phase (ice) than maintain the more energetic liquid...

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has provided new data on the Jupiter system, stunning scientists with never-before-seen perspectives of the giant planet's atmosphere, rings, moons and magnetosphere. These new views include the closest look yet at the Earth-sized "Little Red Spot" storm churning materials through Jupiter's cloud tops; detailed images of small satellites herding dust and boulders through Jupiter's faint rings; and of volcanic eruptions and circular grooves on the planet's largest moons. New Horizons came to within 1.4 million miles of Jupiter on Feb. 28, using the planet's gravity to trim three years from its travel time to Pluto. For...

By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News, Houston Scientists have created geological maps of Europa Scientists have produced a global geological map of Jupiter's moon Europa, which has been proposed as a destination for a future space mission. Interest in Europa has been fuelled by indications that a liquid water ocean lurks beneath its outer shell of ice. The mapping effort will help build a geological history of the enigmatic moon and target future explorations. A team at Arizona State University compiled the maps from data sent back by the US-European Galileo probe. Galileo explored the Jupiter system from...

The plume is seen as an umbrella-shaped feature in the long exposure image to the right Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back images of a huge volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io.A massive dust plume, estimated to be 150m (490ft) high, can be seen erupting from the Tvashtar volcano on Io. On Wednesday, the US probe flew by Jupiter, using the planet's gravity to boost its speed, reducing the travel time to its ultimate target of Pluto. New Horizons also took photos of the icy moons Europa and Ganymede in the run-up to its encounter with Jupiter. Turning...

Spacecraft Will Commit "Grand Theft Pluto"... And No One Will Be Able To Catch It By the time you read this, NASA's New Horizons probe will be swinging by Jupiter, on its way to a rendezvous with the almost-planet Pluto. The space agency says New Horizons will take advantage of its first interplanetary encounter -- gathering photos, data, and an extra 9000 miles per hour, courtesy of the largest planet in our solar system. New Horizons is already the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth, but it needs even more speed to catch Pluto, which is receding from the sun....

There is an amusing Quick-Time movie advertising New Horizons's upcoming Jupiter Fly-By. Some cool Jupiter images are included.

A spacecraft is zooming toward a close encounter with Jupiter to study its tempestuous atmosphere, ring system and four of its moons before dashing off to see distant Pluto in 2015, scientists said on Thursday. NASA's New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever built by humans, is due to reach Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet and fifth from the sun, after a 13-month journey from Earth, flying almost half a billion miles. Launched on January 19, 2006, it is set to make its closest pass by Jupiter on February 28, flying within 1.4 million miles. NASA scientists said the main...

In our Solar System, four planets stand out for their sheer mass and size. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune indeed qualify as "giant planets" because they are larger than any terrestrial planet and much more massive than all other objects in the Solar System, except the Sun, put together. According to Dr. Guillot, "the giant planets, because of their gravitational might, they have played a key role in the formation of the Solar System, tossing around many objects in the system, preventing the formation of a planet in what is now the asteroid belt, and directly leading to the formation...

The Little Red Spot's winds, now raging up to approximately 400 miles per hour, signal that the storm is growing stronger, according to the NASA-led team that made the Hubble observations. The increased intensity of the storm probably caused it to change color from its original white in late 2005, according to the team... Although it seems small when viewed against Jupiter's vast scale, the Little Red Spot is actually about the size of Earth, and the Great Red Spot is around three Earth diameters across... The Little Red Spot is the only survivor among three white-colored storms that merged...

Jupiter Ahoy! Blazing along its path to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons has come within hailing distance of Jupiter. The first picture of the giant planet from the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken Sept. 4, 2006, is a tantalizing promise of what's to come when New Horizons flies through the Jupiter system early next year. New Horizons was still 291 million kilometers (nearly 181 million miles) away from Jupiter when LORRI took the photo. As New Horizons comes much closer, next January and February, LORRI will take more-detailed images. "These first LORRI images of Jupiter are awe-inspiring," says New...

Jupiter's Two Largest Storms Nearly Collide Credit & Copyright: Travis Rector (U. Alaska), Chad Trujillo (Caltech) et al., Gemini Obs., AURA, NSF Explanation: Two storms systems larger than Earth are nearly colliding right now on planet Jupiter. No one was sure what would happen, but so far both storms have survived. In the above false-color infrared image taken last week by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, the red spots appear white because their cloud tops tower above other clouds. Blue color represents lower clouds than white, while clouds colored red are the deepest. The smaller red spot, sometimes called Red...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers their most detailed view yet of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter. For the first time in history, astronomers have witnessed the birth of a new red spot on the giant planet, which is located half a billion miles away. The storm is roughly one-half the diameter of its bigger and legendary cousin, the Great Red Spot. Researchers suggest that the new spot may be related to a possible major climate change in Jupiter's atmosphere. These images were taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys on April 8 and 16, 2006

Astronomers on Earth will have ringside seats to a face-off between two of the biggest storms in the solar system. In one corner will be Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a behemoth of a tempest that is twice as large as Earth and whose 350 mph winds have been whirling for hundreds of years. Its contender will be Oval BA, also known as "Red Jr.," a young six-year storm that is only half Great Red's size but whose winds are just as fierce. The two are approaching each other now and are expected to have their closest approach on the Fourth...

Tiny, red-tinted Amalthea is only about 270 kilometres (168 miles) in length and half that in width. Its mass, estimated from its gravitational effect on Galileo when the spacecraft passed within about 160 kilometres (99 miles) of the moon on 5 November, is far smaller than had been predicted. Amalthea's overall density is close to the density of water ice, Dr Anderson says. But the moon is almost certainly not a solid hunk of ice... Dr Johnson adds: "This finding supports the idea that the inner moons of Jupiter have undergone intense bombardment and break-up. Amalthea may have formed originally...