New research from a team of citizen scientists has challenged the long-held idea that Jupiter’s visible clouds are formed of ammonia ice. Instead, their findings suggest that the clouds sit at depths too warm for ammonia ice to form.
Astronomy enthusiasts have been fascinated by Jupiter’s colorful bands and iconic weather patterns like the Great Red Spot for years. But until now, the composition of its most visible cloud layers remained unsettled. Amateur astronomer Dr Steven Hill studied Jupiter’s atmosphere with commercially available telescopes and colored filters, capturing images at specific wavelengths to measure the abundance of ammonia and height of cloud tops.
His observations suggested that the clouds on Jupiter sit too deep for ammonia ice to form. This led Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics to apply Dr Hill’s analytical approach to observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
The results confirmed that the main cloud layers are deeper than expected and unlikely to be ammonia ice clouds. The team used a computer model to simulate how light interacts with gases and clouds, demonstrating the simplicity of Dr Hill’s approach.
Dr Hill’s straightforward techniques uncovered a more detailed picture of Jupiter’s weather by examining small differences in brightness through narrow color filters. He produced ammonia maps that cost much less to calculate than complex modeling, making it easier for citizen scientists to watch changes in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The study notes that visible shifts in Jupiter’s atmosphere can be tracked alongside these measurements of ammonia, allowing researchers to track notable features like the Great Red Spot. The same technique could be used by amateurs to link visible weather changes to ammonia variations, which could be important ingredients in the weather.
This discovery has implications for understanding the nature of Jupiter’s long-mysterious clouds and how its atmosphere circulates. The team hopes to see if their findings match what spacecraft detect from orbit. With deeper insights into Jupiter and Saturn, researchers plan to continue mapping cloud levels and chemical makeup.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/discovery-about-jupiters-clouds-not-ammonia-ice-leaves-astronomers-astonished