Two views of Jupiter showcase the wealth of knowledge offered by the spectral filters on the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) science instrument. At left, the RGB composite is created utilizing three filters at wavelengths much like the colours seen by the human eye. At proper, the wavelength bounds are widened past the seen vary to increase simply into the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared regimes. Humans can’t understand these prolonged wavelengths, however some animals (resembling mantis shrimp, whose eyes operate equally to sure sensors on some NASA missions) are in a position to detect infrared and ultraviolet mild. The result’s a vivid disk that reveals UV-absorbing lofty hazes as orange (over the poles and in three massive storms, together with the Great Red Spot), and freshly-formed ice as white (compact storm plumes simply north of the equator). Astronomers, together with the OPAL workforce, use these filters (and others not proven right here) to review variations in cloud thickness, altitude, and chemical make-up.
NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
