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Sobre a GMV de Júpiter

Júpiter

(JunoCam – NASA)

A study (led by Agustín Sánchez-Lavega of University of the Basque Country, Spain) determines that although the size of the GRS (Great Red Spot) has changed dramatically over the last 140 years, the winds have changed only modestly since 1979, when the Voyager missions visited Jupiter. The authors suggest that a “deeply rooted dynamical circulation” maintains these wind speeds. Further, they suggest that the rich morphologies in the top of the GRS reflect the dynamics at the cloud tops.

The MWR (Microwave Radiometer – a Juno instrument designed to study the hidden structure beneath Jupiter’s morphologically stunning cloud tops) should be able to probe the Jovian atmosphere to a depth of 550 km. It has already revealed that some atmospheric features visible on the surface actually extend to a depth of at least 300 km.

(JunoCam Wows Us Again With Detailed Images of the Great Red Spot/universetoday.com/27.09.2018)

Sobre a lua Titã

Titã

(ilustração – NASA)

A great deal of attention was focused on Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which has many surprising Earth-like characteristics. These include its nitrogen-rich atmosphere, the presence of liquid bodies on its surface, a dynamic climate, organic molecules, and active prebiotic chemistry. And in the latest revelation to come from the Cassini orbiter, it appears that Titan also experiences periodic dust storms. This puts it in a class that has so far been reserved for only Earth and Mars.

Aside from being the only other celestial object in the Solar System with a substantial nitrogen atmosphere, it is also the only other Solar body where stable bodies of liquid still exist on its surface. And like on Earth, this liquid cycles between the atmosphere and the surface. But whereas on Earth, this cycle consists of water evaporating, forming clouds, and raining back down onto the surface (i.e. the hydrological cycle); on Titan, the entire process involves methane and ethane.

(Titan First-Ever Detected Dust Storms Proves the Moon to be More Earth-like than Ever/universetoday.com/27.09.2018)

(fonte: universetoday.com)