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Space Science

Stunning, Detailed New Image of Jupiter 47

Posted by jamie from the dr.-zeus dept.
darenw writes "From the Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter in late 2001, a new mosaic image has been assembled, revealing a stunning amount of detail, beautiful waves, swirls and spots in Jupiter's atmosphere. Get the story and images at the Cassini imaging team website." This is a huge image. My eyeball guess is that each pixel is the size of Pennsylvania.
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Stunning, Detailed New Image of Jupiter More

Stunning, Detailed New Image of Jupiter

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  • I'm just wondering... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    why can't we ever get a "stunning, detailed new image" of Jennifer Connolly's breasts around here for a change?

  • fakes (Score:4, Funny)

    by eyeball ( 17206 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:39PM (#7477507) Journal
    I can just see the people that say the moon landings were fake now... "Those images of Jupiter can't be real. There aren't any stars in the background!"

    • Re:fakes (Score:5, Funny)

      by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @06:38PM (#7477897) Journal
      I can just see the people that say the moon landings were fake now... "Those images of Jupiter can't be real. There aren't any stars in the background!"

      This image of Jupiter is an obvious fake. There's no monolith full of stars in the foreground.
  • am I glad I got there before this article appeared on slashdot... that's an awesome image and is now my desktop wallpaper... I'll be printing it out onto high quality paper later to hang on the wall... Next stop Saturn... set your calendars for July 2004... With images like this one from Jupiter, Saturn is going to be absolutely awesome... I'd love to see them fly it between the rings and Saturn itself to get the shot to end all shots...

    • Neat-o (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, let's fly the spaceship right between the miniature asteroid belts. Rad idea.
    • I'd love to see them fly it between the rings and Saturn itself to get the shot to end all shots...

      Yeah, I think that WOULD be the last shot. :)

  • Mirror (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fredrikj ( 629833 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:57PM (#7477629) Homepage
    Hmm, I didn't have any trouble accessing this myself... but seeing as others did, here's a mirror of the fullsize JPEG version [telia.com].
  • "My eyeball guess is that each pixel is the size of Pennsylvania."

    This is from the article: (right next to the link for the pictures)

    "It is the most detailed global color portrait of Jupiter ever produced; the smallest visible features are ~ 60 km (37 miles) across."
    So, your 'guess' is waaaaay off.

    It's unbelievable that someone would submit an article WITHOUT ACTUALLY READING IT FIRST.

    And, btw, there are pictures of sections of Jupiter with greater detail, this just happens to be the global picture with the finest detail. Also, the pictures have been somewhat manipulated and it could be argued that this is a computer generated image, using photographed textures. It's all in the article. pffffftt.

    • Re:No Need to 'Eyeball Guess', stupid. Just RTFA! (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's unbelievable that someone would submit an article WITHOUT ACTUALLY READING IT FIRST.
      You must be new around here...

    • Re:No Need to 'Eyeball Guess', stupid. Just RTFA! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's unbelievable that someone would submit an article WITHOUT ACTUALLY READING IT FIRST.
      Don't blame the submitter. Blame the editor. She's the one that put in that comment (editor comments are non-italicized).

    • Re:No Need to 'Eyeball Guess', stupid. Just RTFA! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:14PM (#7478976)
      Smallest visible features are not the same as the size of each pixel though.

      Let's work out just how big each pixel is:

      The largest image there has about 2240 pixels from the top of jupiter to the bottom. According to this website [nasa.gov] at NASA, jupiter has a diameter of 142,800 km.

      142800/2240 is 63.75 km per pixel.

      Oh, this works out the same as what it said on the website. Whoops. Ah well, at least you have an independent confirmation.

      Just for the record, Pennsylvania is [state.pa.us] 309 miles long and 174 miles wide. That's 497 km x 280 km. Let's assume a square Pennsylvania of the same area, and we get 373 km per pixel.
    • Quoth dnahelix:

      there are pictures of sections of Jupiter with greater detail, this just happens to be the global picture with the finest detail. Also, the pictures have been somewhat manipulated and it could be argued that this is a computer generated image, using photographed textures. It's all in the article. pffffftt.

      Well, farts in your face too. I enjoyed the pictures and did not mind the editor speculating about the size of Pennsylvania. Care to link to any of those nicer pictures or tell us where

  • Featured on APOD today (Score:3, Interesting)

    by embobo ( 1520 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @06:30PM (#7477846) Homepage

    One of the images was featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day [nasa.gov] site, so they have a mirror [nasa.gov].


  • No pictures of giant gasbag life forms? No airplane-shaped predators? No city-sized jellyfish? Phhbbt, I want a refund.
  • somebody had to say it. might as well be me.

  • in case you have a telescope (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OneOver137 ( 674481 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @07:40PM (#7478407) Journal
    Jupiter will be well placed in the sky for the next several months. Even a small 2.4" (60mm) scope will show some detail. More info can be found here: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/plane ts/article_174_1.asp

  • The far planets are dim. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yo303 ( 558777 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:08PM (#7478940)
    I think we're going to be disappointed when we take tourist trips out to the far planets.

    *All* the images that we've seen, from telescopes through Voyager through Cassini, were exposed for a long time (meaning longer than a second). Were we to actually look at the gas giant planets and their moons with our eyes, they'd be pretty dim. We might get some nice views if we turn all the spaceship lights down, and let our eyes get accustomed to the dark, but I doubt any detail of Pluto would be visible.

    I don't have the energy to work out the actual lux levels; I only barely had the energy to write this post.

    yo.

  • but, are those white spots underneath the "spot" scars from the comet that slammed into it a few years back?
  • each pixel is the size of Pennsylvania

    I have a map of Jupiter. The scale is one inch equals one inch.

    -

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