The spacecraft Voyager 2 took this picture of Jupiter from 24 million kilometers away. The details seen in this picture include the cloud patterns of Jupiter. Also very noticable is the shadow of Ganymede that is casted on Jupiter’s atmosphere on the left. Io, one of the four Jovian satellites, is shown on the right.
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A Beautiful photo of the planet Jupiter (not the one you see above) has taken first prize in this year's Royal Astronomy Photo Contest. The winning image,taken by photographer Damian Peach, shows Jupiter with its two moons,Io and Ganymede.Here is a link to the winning entry:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110909/full/news.2011.529/slideshow/1.html?identifier=1
You can see other photos which were entered at this link as well. Here is a link to the winner's website where you can see other photos of the heavens he has taken:
http://damianpeach.com/ Apparently Damian Peach was interviewed after the competition. You can play this interview by clicking on the following link:http://vimeo.com/28740733
As stated by the winner:"This photograph was taken as part of a long series of images taken over a three-week period from the island of Barbados in the Caribbean – a location where the atmospheric clarity is frequently excellent, allowing very clear and detailed photographs of the planets to be obtained.
‘I’ve been interested in Astronomy since the age of ten and have specialized in photographing the planets for the last fourteen years. I’m very happy with the photo and wouldn’t really change any aspect of it.’
Telescope used to take the winning photo: Celestron 356mm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (C14) with a PGR Flea3 CCD camera . Two judges give their impressions of the winning photo at the following link which is also the source of the information in the last two paragraphs.
source:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/winners-2011/our-solar-system/
To learn more about the planet Jupiter please visit the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
http://nineplanets.org/jupiter.html
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/planet/planetjupiter.html
http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/jupiter.html
For your listening pleasure as you read the information about the largest planet in our Solar system, I am providing you with the musical composition, "Jupiter" from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" below:
I hope you enjoy the music and I hope you enjoy learning more about Jupiter!
To watch a 44 minute video about the planet Jupiter, entitled, "The Universe: Jupiter The Giant Planet" please click on the following link:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3982646358238810136#
To conclude this blog post, as one of my favorite television personalities, Jack Horkheimer on his PBS show "Star Gazer" used to say to end his show, "Keep Looking up"!!!
Source of image:http://www.nightskyobserver.com/bitmap/jack_horkheimer.jpg
