Scientists have for the first time been able to measure winds in the stratosphere of Jupiter, and have discovered that they are extremely powerful as a jet.
Astronomers using telescope Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, discovered at the poles of the planet Jupiter wind speeds of the order of 1.440 kilometers per hour, i.e. about five times faster than the strongest hurricanes on Earth and twice faster than the great red spot located in the middle of the planet.
An article published in Astronomy and Astrophysics gives new meaning to the term "polar vortex". Thibault Cavalié, leader of the team that published the paper and a scientist at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France, noted that these winds were found under Jupiter's aurora (yes, Jupiter has an aurora and it's amazing ). These currents could form a huge anticycle with a diameter 3 to 4 times the diameter of the Earth and in vertical dimension have an area of 900 km. This is something unique in our solar system.
Unlike the upper layer of Jupiter, which features the famous red and white gas belts, the large red dot, and the polar saddle, winds at the poles were much more difficult to measure and study. But scientists were able to capture them thanks to a famous comet and the powerful Chilean telescope.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell to Jupiter in 1994 and its effects left unique molecules of hydrogen cyanide in the planet's atmosphere. These molecules allowed Cavalié and his colleagues to use 42 of the 66 high-precision antennas of the ALMA telescope to detect molecules and measure their frequency changes as they explode, that is, to measure Doppler displacement.
Vincent Hue, co-author of the study and scientist at the Southwest Research Institute stated in this regard: ""Focusing on this measurement, we were able to deduce the speed of the winds as one could deduce the speed of a passing train from the change in the frequency of the train's whistle."
The study revealed that stratospheric winds below Jupiter's aurora were moving at around 1.440 kilometers per hour. Toward the planet's equator, these same winds move a bit more slowly, at just 600 kilometers per hour. Scientists already knew about the fast winds in Jupiter's upper layers, and previously thought that as they moved toward the edges of the planet, the winds would slow down. This new data transforms this theory and they completely surprised Cavalié's team.
What is really fascinating is that while Jupiter's stratospheric winds are fast, they are far from the fastest wind in our solar system or even from the rest of the planet. In the ionosphere of Jupiter, a layer of the atmosphere closer to the outside of the planet, there are ultrasonic winds that reach 1-2 kilometers per second (or 3.600-7.200 kilometers per hour).
Neptune holds the solar system record, with winds that are 25% faster of those measured under Jupiter's aurora borealis.
