Hubble image archive
Jupiter's Great Red Spot and Ganymede's Shadow (Full-Disk, Color)
Hubble treats astronomers to gorgeous close-up views of the eerie outer planets. But it's a bit of a trick when it seems like the planet's looking back at you! This happened on April 21, 2014, when Hubble was being used to monitor changes in Jupiter's immense Great Red Spot (GRS)...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2014
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2014-31-3388-image
Hubble treats astronomers to gorgeous close-up views of the eerie outer planets. But it's a bit of a trick when it seems like the planet's looking back at you! This happened on April 21, 2014, when Hubble was being used to monitor changes in Jupiter's immense Great Red Spot (GRS) storm. During the exposures, the shadow of the Jovian moon Ganymede swept across the center of the GRS. This gave the giant planet the uncanny appearance of having a pupil in the center of a 10,000-mile-diameter "eye." Momentarily, Jupiter took on the appearance of a Cyclops planet! The shadows from Jupiter's four major satellites routinely cross the face of Jupiter. This natural-color picture was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center);Acknowledgment: C. Go and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Jupiter |
| Object Description | Planet |
| Distance | The semi-major axis of Jupiter's orbit about the Sun is 5.2 astronomical units (483 million miles or 778 million km). |
| Dimensions | Jupiter has a diameter of roughly 88,789 miles (142,984 km) at the equator. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : PI: A. Simon (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), G. Orton (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Rogers (University of Cambridge, UK), and M. Wong and I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley). |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | April 21, 2014 |
| Filters | 395nm, 502nm, and 631nm |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Blue: 395nm Green: 502nm Red: 631nm |
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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