Credit: SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley) IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these atmospheres, but Hubble’s sharpness and sensitivity keeps an unblinking eye on an ever-changing kaleidoscope of complex activities long after those missions have ended. Inaugurated in 2014, the telescope’s Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) Program has been providing us with yearly views of the giant planets. Jupiter’s legendary Great Red Spot takes center stage in this view. Though this vortex is big enough to swallow Earth, it has actually shrunken to the smallest size it has ever been over observation records dating back 150 years. Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede can be seen transiting the giant planet at lower right. Slightly larger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. It is a cratered world with a mainly water-ice surface with apparent glacial flows driven by internal heat. (This image is smaller in size because Jupiter was 81,000 miles farther from Earth when the photo was taken). This photo was taken on January 6, 2023.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-007

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/