[off camera] All eyes will be on Jupiter this weekend. That's because Jupiter will be shining
the biggest and brightest, as it will all year. Here to tell us why
and where we can find it in the night sky, and show us the Hubble Space Telescope
newest image of Jupiter is Dr. Michelle Thaller at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Thanks for joining us. [Thaller] Great to be here, thank you. [off camera] So start by
telling us why is this weekend the best time to view Jupiter and where
can we find it in the night sky? [Thaller] Yes actually so this weekend Jupiter
it makes its closest approach to the Earth for next 13 months. And that means its
the largest and brightest in the sky. So if you go outside at sunset
and look over in the East, on the opposite of the sky from the sun, you'll see Jupiter rising.
And even through a small telescope or a pair of binoculars
you'll be able to see the giant planet and four of its largest moons.
This is a beautiful view. It's really well worth getting outside to see. Now what's happening
is that the Earth and Jupiter are actually on the same side of the sun.
That's the closest we ever get. And we call that opposition. So this is the perfect
weekend to go out and see the largest planet in our solar system.
[off camera] Now I understand the Hubble Space Telescope just took a new image
of Jupiter. Show us this new image and talk a little bit about what we're seeing?
[Thaller] Well that's right, Hubble can take the same sort of advantage of Jupiter's close
approach by making a beautiful image of Jupiter. So Hubble is in orbit above the Earth
right now. And it returned this gorgeous image. I absolutely love the colors
of this image. Here is our solar system's largest planet in all its splendor.
You can see the famous Red Spot. You can see these wonderful bands of
color which are actually jet streams that are blowing between three and four hundred miles an hour
And remember that Jupiter is so big, you can fit a thousand Earths inside it.
This is a truly spectacular planet. [off camera] That's
fascinating that you can a thousand Earths inside it. What are some of the other
interesting things that we're learning about Jupiter? [Thaller] Well the amazing
thing is that Jupiter is changing all the time. You're looking at clouds, you're looking at weather.
So every time the Hubble Space Telescope looks at it, it's different. We're learning about
how Jupiter was formed, its composition. We're learning about the temperatures
of its clouds. And the Red Spot is a huge mystery. The Red Spot is actually a
hurricane. You can also see changes in the Northern Lights. These are actually
images of the auroras, the Northern Lights of Jupiter. As you can see they're shimmering.
And constantly changing around. We also have a probe that's at Jupiter right now
The Juno spacecraft. And these are images taken from much closer to Jupiter
Juno is actually in orbit around Jupiter right now returning spectacular
images of the clouds. [off camera] Let's talk a little bit about the
Great Red Spot. It's captivated astronomers for hundreds of years.
And then Hubble has captured images of this spot
mysteriously shrinking over the last two decades. Can you show us Hubble's unique view
of this feature? [Thaller] Well that's the wonderful thing about having such a long record from
the Hubble telescope. So Hubble is actually close to celebrating it's 27th anniversary
And it's been looking at this hurricane - it's actually an anticyclone.
It actually orbits the other way around from a hurricane. And you can see that it changes color.
It actually changes the size. So that's mysterious, we don't
really know what's going on with the Red Spot. But this is weather and it can change
at any time. So it's wonderful to have this record year to year
Right now the Red Spot is shrinking. We don't know how long the Red Spot will exist
in the future. [off camera] Europa, one of Jupiter's
moons is one of the best places in our solar system to look for life.
What are scientists learning about this moon? [Thaller] Europa is a fascinating
world all by itself. It has a wonderful ice-covered surface,
but underneath the surface there's a liquid water ocean.
And we actually believe there's almost twice the amount of liquid water on Europa as there is on
the entire planet Earth. Now recently we've discovered from the Hubble telescope
that there may be cracks in the ice that are venting some of this water.
Water vapor is actually coming out into space. And that's a really fascinating
prospect because maybe we can sample that water.
[off camera] That's amazing. Where can we see more of Hubble's amazing images? [Thaller] Well to
go and see wonderful collection of Hubble images - everything from the solar system to the very deep
universe. Go to NASA.gov/Hubble or
@NASAHubble. As I mentioned before there are 27 years
of images to look through, including this beautiful one released tonight of the biggest
planet in our solar system. [off camera] Great thanks so much for join us! [Thaller] Thank you.