Juno: A marvelous image of a giant Jovian storm

The Juno probe orbiting Jupiter captures this image (color-enhanced) of a grand storm in the northern hemisphere of the gas giant:

Jovian Tempest

This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its ninth close flyby of the gas giant planet.

The image was taken on Oct. 24, 2017 at 10:32 a.m. PDT (1:32 p.m. EDT). At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 6,281 miles (10,108 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of Jupiter at a latitude of 41.84 degrees. The spatial scale in this image is 4.2 miles/pixel (6.7 kilometers/pixel).

The storm is rotating counter-clockwise with a wide range of cloud altitudes. The darker clouds are expected to be deeper in the atmosphere than the brightest clouds. Within some of the bright “arms” of this storm, smaller clouds and banks of clouds can be seen, some of which are casting shadows to the right side of this picture (sunlight is coming from the left). The bright clouds and their shadows range from approximately 4 to 8 miles (7 to 12 kilometers) in both widths and lengths. These appear similar to the small clouds in other bright regions Juno has detected and are expected to be updrafts of ammonia ice crystals possibly mixed with water ice.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager.

More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu.

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The Space Show this week – Nov.27.2017

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Nov. 27; 2017: 2-3:30 pm PST; 5-6:30 pm EST; 4-5:30 pm CST; We welcome back Christopher Stone for an end of the year program on National Security Space and more.

2. Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017; 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST) : No Space Show program tonight.

3. Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017:  Hotel Mars with John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston with Douglas MessierDream Chaser in the news.

4. Friday, Dec. 1, 2017: 9:30-11 am PST, (12:30 -2 pm EST; 11:30 am -1 pm CST): We welcome Dr. Miguel Alcubierre to discuss his warp drive paper, gravity waves and more. This program is co-hosted with John Hunt,.

5. Sunday, Dec. 13, 2017: 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 5 pm CDT): Welcome to Open Lines. We talk about the topics you want to discuss. All calls and callers welcome.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston

Videos: Watch Earth’s vegetation vary over 20 years in time lapse of satellite imagery

This time lapse GIF shows earth’s plant life cycling over 20 years as seen by NASA and NOAA satellite earth observation imagery:

From space, satellites can see Earth breathe. A new NASA visualization shows 20 years of continuous observations of plant life on land and at the ocean’s surface, from September 1997 to September. 2017. On land, vegetation appears on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to dark green (lots of vegetation); at the ocean surface, phytoplankton are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (high). This visualization was created with data from satellites including SeaWiFS, and instruments including the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. Credits: NASA

More about this clip and other aspects of observing earth from space: Six Stories of Life That NASA Sees From Space | NASA.

Here are some ESA earth from space videos:

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Videos: Dream Chaser landing, Chinese rocket launch, Planetary Resources Arkyd-6 sat, & SpaceX’s Texas test site

Videos of some recent happenings in the space world:

** A Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser recently practiced a landing from space by dropping from a helicopter and gliding back to a runway at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California:  Dream Chaser Achieves Successful Free Flight at NASA Armstrong | NASA

** A Chinese Long March 6, one of the country’s newest rockets, launched 3 earth observation satellites into orbit yesterday: Long March 6 lofts 3 satellites into orbit – CCTV News – CCTV.com English

** Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources is launching its Arkyd-6 satellite on an Indian rocket next month. The satellite will test out a water ice sensor that will be used on later spacecraft to prospect for water rich asteroids:

** SpaceX posted this video highlighting its test facility in McGregor, Texas:

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