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Astronomy Image of the Day

Jupiter: At The Belt-Zone Boundary Credit:

10 March 1997

Author not provided

NASA Astronomy Image of the Day for 10 March 1997

Jupiter's thick atmosphere is striped by wind-driven cloud bands that remain fixed in latitude - dark colored bands are known as belts while light colored bands are zones. At Jupiter's belt-zone boundaries the shearing wind velocities can reach nearly 300 miles per hour. Near infrared images recently returned by the Galileo Spacecraft were mapped to visible colors in this close-up of a belt-zone boundary near the gas giant's equator. The color mapping reveals different layers, lower clouds are bluish, higher ones pinkish. The smallest features seen are tens of miles across.

Image and explanation courtesy of NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day