apparent size: 33 to 50 seconds
apparent magnitude: -2.5 to -1.2
Jupiter
The largest planet, Jupiter is more massive than all the rest of the planetary system (excepting the sun) combined...
A gem for small telescopes, as some surface (actually atmospheric) detail is readily visible, as are the four brightest moons... With good seeing conditions and a 6 to 8 inch telescope, one can often observe one of the moon's shadow on the planet during a transit...
View through a small telescope (note the four moons):
apparent size: 33 to 50 seconds
apparent magnitude: -2.5 to -1.2
View through a large telescope:
Jupiter as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope:
Jupiter with Satellites Io and Europa
Voyager 1 took this photo of Jupiter and two of its satellites (Io, left, and Europa, right) on Feb. 13, 1979. In this view, Io is about 350,000 kilometers (220,000 miles) above Jupiter's Great Red Spot, while Europa is about 600,000 kilometers (373,000 miles) above Jupiter's clouds. Jupiter is about 20 million kilometers (12.4 million miles) from the spacecraft at the time of this photo. There is evidence of circular motion in Jupiter's atmosphere. While the dominant large scale motions are west-to-east, small scale movement includes eddy like circulation within and between the bands. (Courtesy NASA/JPL)
The Great Red Spot
This dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings was obtained by Voyager 1 on Feb. 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 9.2 million kilometers (5.7 million miles) from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 160 kilometers (100 miles) across can be seen here. The colorful, wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex and variable wave motion. (Courtesy NASA)
This animation of Jupiter was created from a mosaic of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft. As the animation starts, the great red spot is towards the left side. A number of brown spots can be seen just above center. Because this animation was created from still images, the clouds are not swirling like they would if a movie camera observing Jupiter took the pictures. This animation is Copyrighted © 1998 by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this animation needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton. High-resolution animations can be generated upon request.
This animation was taken from the movie Voyager Science Summary (CMP 346). It was digitized by Calvin J. Hamilton.
Ganymede
click on the image for a full screen view
This shows an entire hemisphere of Ganymede. The prominent dark region, called Galileo Regio, is about 3,200 km in diameter. The bright spots are relative recent impact craters. Part of the Galileo Regio may be covered with a bright frost. This image is Copyright © by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Europa
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This is one of the highest resolution images of Europa obtained by Voyager 2. It shows the smoothness of most of the terrain and the near absence of impact craters. Only three craters larger than 5 km in diameter have been found. This image is Copyright © by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Callisto
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This image shows the heavily cratered surface of Callisto. It was taken by Voyager 2 on July 7, 1979. An enormous impact basin with concentric rings is located near the top and slightly left of center. This image is Copyright © by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Io
click on the image for a full screen view
This color image of Io was created by combining the color channels of the low resolution USGS Voyager controlled color mosaic with Tayfun Oner's high resolution Galileo mosaic. The brown, orange areas are probably covered by sulphur or a mixture containing sulphur. The light areas may be sulphur dioxide snow and the pock-marks are mostly volcanic calderas up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) across. Mountainous regions exist near both poles, with some features rising 8 kilometers (5 miles) or more above their surroundings. (Courtesy A.Tayfun Oner) This image is Copyrighted © 1997 by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
This animation is a fly around of Io. The larger animation has a view angle of around 60 degrees and the smaller animation has a view angle of around 20 degrees. The shadows of both Europa and Io appear on Jupiter. A volcanic plume catches the sunlight just beyond the terminator of Io, rising from Ulgen Patera. The Io map is courtesy USGS, the Jupiter map by James Hastings-Trew and Constantine Thomas.
Written by Stephen R. Kessell
Updated 27 January, 2001
