Search


	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Understanding ammonia clouds on Jupiter
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-08-03 19:00:00
	Description:		NASA’s Juno space probe has arrived at Jupiter, which will give astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley the opportunity to expand upon her already detailed maps of the giant planet. de Pater’s maps documented Jupiter’s global circulation patterns, or the movement of gases through the atmosphere. This also occurs on Earth, where the circulation of air distributes heat across the planet. "When you just look at Jupiter, you see clouds, you see brownish and whitish bands. The whitish ones are called zones and the brown ones are called the belts. The ammonia gas will condense out and form clouds. And so above that cloud deck, ammonia is basically dry air. And that dry air will then descend back down into neighboring belt regions. So that’s sort of a circulation pattern of air rising, then condensing out, and dry air sinking down. In a way, global circulations on Jupiter may help understand global circulations on the Earth."
	Total Play:		0