A team of amateur and professional astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery about clouds on Jupiter, overturning decades-old assumptions about their composition. Dr. Steven Hill, an amateur astronomer from Colorado, used commercially available telescopes and special filters to create ammonia maps remarkably similar to those produced by expensive techniques.
The findings suggest that the clouds are located deeper within Jupiter’s atmosphere, where it is too warm for ammonia to condense into ice. Building on Dr. Hill’s technique, Professor Patrick Irwin applied the method to observations made with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
The team used a simple method that involves comparing brightness values from adjacent narrow filters to simulate how light interacts with gases and clouds. The results confirmed that the clouds are formed at more profound pressures, composed of ammonium hydrosulphide, a compound produced by reactions between ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and smoggy photochemical products.
This discovery opens up new possibilities for amateur astronomers worldwide to track ammonia variations and cloud-top pressures across Jupiter’s atmosphere. The team also found similar agreement in the derived ammonia maps with other studies on Saturn’s atmosphere, suggesting that similar photochemical processes are occurring in both planets.
The simplicity and speed of Dr. Hill’s method allow amateur astronomers to contribute meaningfully to professional science, as Professor Irwin said: “This simple method allows us to probe deeper into Jupiter’s atmosphere than ever before.”
Source: https://www.techexplorist.com/long-standing-misunderstanding-composition-jupiter-clouds-resolved/95373