木星的大氣層仍在上演一出好戲

木星的大氣層仍在上演一出好戲

Jupiter's atmosphere is quite simply a work of art. With an atmosphere that best resembles the sun, Jupiter is predominantly made up of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of ammonia, sulfur, methane and water vapor. Strong east-west winds in the planet's upper atmosphere travel at 400 mph, with dark belts and light zones reflecting different compositions of chemicals.

木星的大氣層簡直就是一件藝術品。木星的大氣層最像太陽，主要由氫和氦組成，還有少量的氨、硫、甲烷和水蒸氣。在這顆行星的上層大氣中，強烈的東西風以每小時400英里的速度吹過，暗色帶和亮色帶反射出不同的化學成分。

Clouds swirl around Jupiter's northern hemisphere. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)

Thanks to NASA's Juno spacecraft (which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016), we can admire Jupiter's beauty up-close.

多虧了美國宇航局的朱諾號宇宙飛船(自2016年7月以來一直環(huán)繞木星運行)，我們可以近距離欣賞木星的美麗。

On Feb. 12, Juno performed its 18th flyby from about 8,000 miles away and captured the image seen above. The swirling clouds and circular area are part of a jet stream region in the northern hemisphere called "Jet N6." Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this color-enhanced image by using data made available to the public.

2月12日，“朱諾”號在大約8000英里外進行了第18次飛越，并拍攝了上圖。這些漩渦云和圓形區(qū)域是北半球一個名為“N6”的急流區(qū)域的一部分。公民科學家凱文·m·吉爾利用向公眾提供的數(shù)據(jù)創(chuàng)造了這張彩色圖像。

A stunning series of photographs captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft highlights the complicated dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstad/Sean Doran)

In this series of images, you can see an anticyclonic white oval, called N5-AWO, in the far left image. As you move through the series, you can still see the white oval, albeit from a slightly different angle from Juno. You can also see the Little Red Spot (second and third images) and the North North Temperate Belt (fourth and fifth images.)

在這一系列圖像中，你可以在最左邊的圖像中看到一個反氣旋性的白色橢圓，稱為N5-AWO。當你看完這個系列的時候，你仍然可以看到白色的橢圓形，盡管從一個與朱諾略有不同的角度。你也可以看到小紅斑(第二和第三張圖片)和北溫帶(第四和第五張圖片)。

This sequence was taken on the night of July 15, 2018 and the very early morning hours of July 16, as Juno did its 14th close flyby of Jupiter.

這張照片拍攝于2018年7月15日晚上和7月16日凌晨，當時“朱諾”號正第14次近距離飛越木星。

This color-enhanced image of a cloud system in Jupiter's Northern Hemisphere was captured in October 2017. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran)

This view of Jupiter's stormy atmosphere is like something out of a Vincent van Gogh painting.

這幅木星暴風雨的景象就像梵高的畫一樣。

The image was captured in October 2017 by Juno at a distance of less than 12,000 miles above the Jovian cloud tops.

這張照片是由“朱諾”號在2017年10月拍攝的，距離木星云頂不到1.2萬英里。

According to NASA scientist Jack Connerney, deputy principal investigator of the Juno mission, previous images of Jupiter have been taken at the equator where orange, red, and white hues dominate.

據(jù)“朱諾”號副首席研究員、美國宇航局科學家杰克·康納尼介紹，之前的木星照片都是在赤道附近拍攝的，那里以橙色、紅色和白色為主色調。

Juno snapped this photo of Jupiter during its seventh close pass in May 2017. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

According to Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, the white clouds shown in the image above are so high and so cool that they're likely snow clouds. As you might expect, they're a bit different from the icy storms we experience here on Earth.

據(jù)“朱諾”號的首席研究員斯科特·博爾頓稱，上圖中所示的白云如此之高，如此之冷，很可能是雪云。正如你所預料的那樣，它們與我們在地球上經歷的冰暴有些不同。

"It's probably mostly ammonia ice, but there may be water ice mixed into it, so it's not exactly like the snow that we have [on Earth]," Bolton told Space.com. "And I was using my imagination when I said it was snowing there — it could be hail."

波頓告訴Space.com網站:“可能主要是氨冰，但可能有水冰混入其中，所以它與我們(地球上的)雪不完全一樣。”“當我說那里在下雪的時候，我在運用我的想象力——可能是冰雹。”

A view of Jupiter's south pole as captured by the Juno spacecraft. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

NASA was surprised to discover that the poles of Jupiter are dominated by violent cyclones measuring hundreds of miles across. The massive tempests are densely grouped and seemingly rub together across the entire polar region.

美國宇航局驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)，木星的兩極被直徑數(shù)百英里的強烈氣旋所控制。巨大的風暴密集地聚集在一起，似乎在整個極地地區(qū)相互摩擦。

"What you see is incredibly complex features, the cyclones and anticyclones all over the poles," Bolton told The New York Times.

博爾頓在接受《紐約時報》采訪時表示:“你所看到的是令人難以置信的復雜特征，極地到處都是氣旋和反氣旋。”

The familiar orange, yellow, and brown swirls of cloud systems near Jupiter's equator. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

Some of the massive storms churning away near Jupiter's equator, like the pearl-colored cyclone above, are roughly the same diameter as Earth.

木星赤道附近的一些大型風暴，如上面的珍珠色氣旋，其直徑與地球大致相同。

A view of a massive storm on Jupiter as captured by the Juno spacecraft in October 2017 from a distance of only 6,281 miles. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

Juno, which has been in orbit around Jupiter since July 2016, is scheduled to continue gathering data on the planet until at least July 2021. NASA will then make a decision to either extend the spacecraft's mission or, like Cassini's tour of Saturn, send it into a death plunge toward the gas giant to avoid contaminating nearby worlds.

“朱諾”號自2016年7月以來一直在木星的軌道上運行，計劃至少在2021年7月前繼續(xù)收集木星上的數(shù)據(jù)。然后，美國宇航局將做出一個決定，要么延長飛船的任務，要么像卡西尼號的土星之旅一樣，把它送入一個死亡的深淵，以避免污染附近的星球。