by Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed incredibly powerful winds — with speeds of up to 1,450 kmh (901 mph) — near Jupiter’s poles.
Astronomers were aware of strong winds near Jupiter’s poles, but much higher up in the atmosphere, hundreds of kilometers above the focus area of the new study.
Previous studies predicted that these upper-atmosphere winds would decrease in velocity and disappear well before reaching as deep as the stratosphere.
“The new ALMA data tell us the contrary. Finding these strong stratospheric winds near Jupiter’s poles was a real surprise,” said Dr. Thibault Cavalié, an astronomer in the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux.
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Astronomers were aware of strong winds near Jupiter’s poles, but much higher up in the atmosphere, hundreds of kilometers above the focus area of the new study.
Previous studies predicted that these upper-atmosphere winds would decrease in velocity and disappear well before reaching as deep as the stratosphere.
“The new ALMA data tell us the contrary. Finding these strong stratospheric winds near Jupiter’s poles was a real surprise,” said Dr. Thibault Cavalié, an astronomer in the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux.
Source
