Been outside at midnight lately? There’s something you really need to see. Jupiter is approaching Earth for the closest encounter between the two planets in more than a decade–and it is dazzling.
The night of closest approach is Sept. 20-21st. This is also called “the night of opposition” because Jupiter will be opposite the sun, rising at sunset and soaring overhead at midnight. Among all denizens of the midnight sky, only the Moon itself will be brighter.
Earth-Jupiter encounters happen every 13 months when the Earth laps Jupiter in their race around the sun. But because Earth and Jupiter do not orbit the sun in perfect circles, they are not always the same distance apart when Earth passes by. On Sept. 20th, Jupiter will be as much as 75 million km closer than previous encounters and will not be this close again until 2022.
The view through a telescope is excellent. Because Jupiter is so close, the planet’s disk can be seen in rare detail–and there is a lot to see. For instance, the Great Red Spot, a cyclone twice as wide as Earth, is bumping up against another storm called “Red Spot Jr.” The apparition of two planet-sized tempests grinding against one another must be seen to be believed.
Also, Jupiter’s trademark South Equatorial Belt (SEB) recently vanished, possibly submerging itself beneath high clouds. Researchers say it could reappear at any moment. The dramatic resurgence would be accompanied by a globe-straddling profusion of spots and cloudy swirls, clearly visible in backyard telescopes.
And what was that flash? Amateur astronomers have recently reported a surprising number of fireballs in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Apparently, many small asteroids or comet fragments are hitting the giant planet and exploding among the clouds. Researchers who have studied these events say visible flashes could be occurring as often as a few times a month.
Finally, we mustn’t forget the moons of Jupiter because they are also having a close encounter with Earth. These are planet-sized worlds with active volcanoes (Io), possible underground oceans (Europa), vast fields of craters (Callisto), and mysterious global grooves (Ganymede). When Galileo discovered the moons 400 years ago, they were no more than pinpricks of light in his primitive spy glass. Big, modern amateur telescopes reveal actual planetary disks with colorful markings.
It makes you wonder, what would Galileo think?
Answer: “I’m getting up at midnight!”
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
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| Bonus: Coincidentally, the planet Uranus is also at opposition on Sept. 21st. On that night it will travel across the sky alongside Jupiter, although not nearly so bright. Being almost three times smaller and five times farther away than Jupiter, Uranus is barely visible to the naked eye. It looks great, however, through a small telescope. Just point your optics at Jupiter and you will find emerald Uranus less than 1o away.
Dedication: The author dedicates this story to Jack Horkheimer, executive director of Miami’s Space Transit Planetarium, who died on August 20, 2010. Jack was an icon of astronomy outreach. His weekly reports on the night sky, broadcast by PBS since 1976, reached millions of people and often influenced the narrative of Science@NASA stories. Even this story, published after Jack’s death, contains some of his words. Thanks, Jack, and “Keep Looking Up!” |
There is an excellent online planetarium at the following site:
http://www.skyviewcafe.com/
You can input your own geographical coordinates so see the sky from your point of view.
The dissappearance of the Southern Equatorial Belt is quite impressive. The view of Jupiter today is not quite the same it was in 2003 when I shot this image. “Where did the SEB go, and why?” one might ask.
The “not again until 2022” is somewhat overhyped. You could equally well say “two rounds from now it will be just as close”. It reminds me of Read this about Mars, pass it on, stop the hoax.
Trotting out the old myth again eh? While it is overcast most of the time in Fall and Winter, Spring and Summer are mostly clear here in Western Washington. You don’t get better summers than here.
However, fall has decided to come early, and it’s been rainy and overcast for about a week now, with a few cloudbreaks now and then.
The thunderbolt nature of Jupiter was confirmed when it was found that it provokes volcanic activity on its satellite Io, with a power of more than three million amperes.
Io acts as an electrical generator as it moves through Jupiter’s magnetic field, developing 400,000 volts across its diameter and generating an electric current of 3 million amperes that flows along the magnetic field to the planet’s ionosphere.
http://arc.iki.rssi.ru/solar/eng/io.htm
Jimmy Haigh says:
September 20, 2010 at 2:58 am
That doesn’t sound right, 22 years is almost two full orbits of Jupiter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction says “Great Conjunctions take place regularly, every 18–20 years.”
The December 2020 conjunction will feature a separation of only 6 arc-minutes.
Ric Werme says:
September 20, 2010 at 10:18 am
You are correct – serves me right for making a post in a hurry.
I’ve just checked – for example, there were conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 1961, 1981 and 2000, and there will be again in 2020, 2040 and 2059. That averages out at just under 20 years.
In the old days, (i.e. before reliable chronometers,) you could get tables that enabled navigators to check chronometer errors by measuring the angles between the moons of Jupiter by sextant.
I was always a bit sorry that I never was able to try that because although I could measure the angles I never was able to find a source for up-to-date tables. No doubt no-one worked them out.
Nowadays, I doubt if most navigators even know how to use a sextant any more.
Jupiter and Saturn meet every 19.859 years, so Jupiter needs nearly 2 orbits to meet its neighbour. Now put these numbers together in a simple cosine formula and what you get?
the sunspot cycles sequence of course:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC11.htm
there is more here:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0401/0401107.pdf
no Jupiter or Saturn mentioned there, astrology is not something science concerns itself with, to publish leave the offending names out.
oldseadog says:
September 20, 2010 at 1:12 pm
That’s sad. What happens if your GPS navigation system isn’t working?
W^L+
Friends still at sea tell me that frequently they get calls on the VHF saying “Our GPS has broken, please can you give me your position”.
One now replies with “so has mine, but I got a sun position line about 3 hours ago, and I’ll give you the details if you like”.
This usually results in silence.
Sadly, it’s been cloudy. But I am sure I was able to see Jupiter last week when we had a clear-ish night and I pointed it out to my wife saying that I thought that star was Jupiter. I then started making passing funny remarks about other planets.
Check this new paper:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1009/1009.0784v1.pdf
20100921, 2300hrs BST, Southern England. Gin-clear night, Jupiter seen with clarity. Binoculars enhanced the view. Older offspring most impressed with my astronomical knowledge.
Thanks, WUWT!
Wayne says:
That is curious. Maybe some astronomers will enlighten us later how this is occurring.
Yeah, right, and get called a troll!
Doug Jones says:
August 31, 2010 at 8:47 pm
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/30/younger-dryas-space-impact-theory-missing-the-diamonds/#comment-471832
Binoculars are quite good, I use a very old pair of ‘Limer’ optics with a 42mm objective lens, a large light gathering lens is really important for night work.
Try to look for Uranus,(the chances of finding this unblinking pinpoint of light again are remote) as it is only 0.9deg away on the 23rd, it is really the closest point of light close to Jupiter.
If you take Jupiter’s planetary plane as a guide, then go 90deg from Jupiter 1deg to the north.
1deg is the width of the nail of your small finger held at arm’s length.
Jupiter’s red spot – or “kissing red spots” are nice examples of nonlinear pattern structures. In this video
the persistent holes in the vibrated cornstarch are analogies of these Jovian red spots – especially if they approach and repel in the same way.
Wayne says:
That is curious. Maybe some astronomers will enlighten us later how this is occurring.
Actually, Wayne, the answer to your observation likely is in here.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/30/younger-dryas-space-impact-theory-missing-the-diamonds/#more-24196
Sky cleared up last night briefly around 10-11pm and saw something big and bright near the moon that ain’t usually there. Moon was near full and this was pretty much the only other thing visible near it. Could make out a disc shape with binoculars.