Detailed pictures of planet glowing through clouds were taken with telescope in Hawaii
Astronomers have captured some of the highest resolution images of Jupiter ever obtained from the ground using a technique known as âlucky imagingâ.
The observations, from the Gemini North telescope on Hawaiiâs dormant volcano Mauna Kea, reveal lightning strikes and storm systems forming around deep clouds of water ice and liquid. The images show the warm, deep layers of the planetâs atmosphere glowing through gaps in thick cloud cover in a âjack-o-lanternâ-like effect.
âThe Gemini data were critical because they allowed us to probe deeply into Jupiterâs clouds on a regular schedule,â said Michael Wong of University of California, Berkeley, who led the research team. âWe used a very powerful technique called lucky imaging.â
The technique involves obtaining a large number of very short exposure images and then only using the sharpest ones, when the Earthâs atmosphere is briefly stable, and discarding the rest. The latest observations provide some of the sharpest infrared images of Jupiter ever obtained from the ground. âThese images rival the view from space,â said Wong.