Portuguese scientists from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of Lisbon have used the European Southern Observatory’s VLT telescope for the first time to study a planet in the solar system rather than distant worlds in deep space. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Universe.
The VLT was designed to search for and analyze exoplanets light-years from Earth. The distance to Jupiter is only 43 light minutes.
Astronomers used the telescope-mounted ESPRESSO spectrograph to measure wind speed on Jupiter. Using a high-precision instrument, the team was able to detect that winds in the gas giant reached speeds of 428 kilometers per hour. The error was less than 36 kilometers per hour.
“Jupiter’s atmosphere contains ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water, which form distinctive red and white streaks at the level of clouds visible from Earth. Upper clouds in the pressure region of 0.6 to 0.9 bar consist of ammonia ice. “Water clouds form the densest and lowest layer and have the strongest influence on the dynamics of the atmosphere,” said Pedro Machado, one of the study’s authors.
The team plans to expand observations with ESPRESSO to expand the scope of the planet Jupiter’s disk and temporarily collect wind data during the planet’s approximately 10-hour rotation period.
Once the technology is mastered for the solar system’s largest planet, astronomers hope to apply it to the atmospheres of other gaseous planets; The next target is Saturn.
happened before known About preparations for the launch of the Einstein Space Telescope with its revolutionary “lobster-eye” camera.