James Webb Space Telescope Uncovers Mysterious Patterns Above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered new and unusual structures and activities in Jupiter’s atmosphere above the Great Red Spot. These strange features appear to be caused by powerful atmospheric gravity waves.

The Great Red Spot is the largest storm in our solar system, twice the size of Earth, and has been raging for at least 300 years, according to NASA. The winds in this massive storm blow at speeds between 270 to 425 miles per hour (430 to 680 kilometers per hour), which is up to 3.5 times faster than a tornado on Earth.

Despite the storm’s impressive age, size, and strength, scientists previously thought that the atmosphere above the Great Red Spot was not very interesting. However, new observations from the JWST’s Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument, which studied the storm in July 2022, have proven this assumption wrong.

“We thought this region, perhaps naively, would be really boring,” said team leader Henrik Melin from the University of Leicester. “It is, in fact, just as interesting as the northern lights, if not more so. Jupiter never ceases to surprise.”

Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is where the planet’s lower atmosphere meets its magnetic field, leading to bright northern and southern lights. These lights are powered by charged particles from the sun and volcanic material from Io, Jupiter’s moon, which is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky and can be easily seen on clear nights. However, apart from its northern and southern lights, the planet’s atmosphere glows weakly, making it hard for ground-based telescopes to see details through Earth’s atmosphere.

From its position a million miles away from Earth, the JWST faces no such hindrance. Its sensitivity to infrared light allows it to see Jupiter’s atmosphere in great detail, including the area above the Great Red Spot.

Melin and his team used NIRSpec to study this region, hoping to find out if it was as dull as previously thought. Instead, they discovered a variety of intricate structures, including dark arcs and bright spots.

The team believes that gravity waves, which are different from gravitational waves, are responsible for these changes. Gravity waves are like waves crashing on a beach, creating ripples in the sand. They are generated deep in Jupiter’s turbulent lower atmosphere and travel upward, altering the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere.

These atmospheric gravity waves are also seen on Earth, but they are much less intense than those on Jupiter.

The team plans to continue studying these newly discovered features and wave patterns with the JWST. This future research could reveal how the waves move through Jupiter’s upper atmosphere and how they cause the observed structures to change.

These findings are expected to help scientists better understand how energy is distributed across Jupiter and could support the European Space Agency’s (ESA) mission, Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE).

JUICE launched on April 14, 2023, and is expected to reach Jupiter and its moons in 2031. It will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

The team’s results have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.