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> Impact on Jupiter

Impact on Jupiter

author: Nasa/ESA/Novapix

reference: a-jup02-70021

Image Size 300 DPI: 11 * 11 cm

This Hubble picture, taken on 23 July, is the first full-disc, natural-colour image of Jupiter made with Hubble's new camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Each pixel in this high-resolution image spans about 119 kilometres in Jupiter's atmosphere. Jupiter was more than 600 million kilometres from Earth when the images were taken. The dark smudge at bottom right is debris from a comet or asteroid that plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated. In addition to the fresh impact, the image reveals a spectacular variety of shapes in the swirling atmosphere of Jupiter. The planet is wrapped in bands of yellow, brown and white clouds. These bands are produced by the atmosphere flowing in different directions at various places. When these opposing flows interact, turbulence appears.

Keywords for this photo:

2009 - ASTEROID - ASTRONOMY - COLLISION - COMET - HST - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - IMPACT - JUPITER - PLANET -