06.02.21

Juno Reveals the Depth of Jupiter’s Zones and Belts

Jupiter’s belts and zones represent east-west jet-streams that show a clear north-south asymmetry.

Jupiter’s gravity field shows a similar north-south asymmetry penetrating 3000 km into Jupiter.

Gravity observations reveal a deep dynamical atmosphere (~3 Earth masses) in differential rotation

This implies that the dynamical atmosphere of Jupiter is equivalent to about 3 Earth masses.

The gravity results were a surprise and indicate the origin of Jupiter’s asymmetric nature may lie deep inside of Jupiter.

Gravity observations reveal a deep dynamical atmosphere (~3 Earth masses) in differential rotation

Credit: Kaspei et al. 2018 Nature doi: 10.1038/nature25793

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