Jupiter pictures directed from Reading for NASA mission

Space scientists in Reading are playing a vital role this week in an important NASA mission to photograph Jupiter. 

Dr James O’Donoghue and a team of scientists have been using the Keck telescope remotely to photograph the gas giant. The W.M. Keck Observatory is based in Hawaii and has the largest infrared telescope in the world.

The images were taken in support of the NASA Juno spacecraft mission, launched in 2011 to study Jupiter. Juno is currently the only spacecraft visiting any of the gas giant planets.

Dr O’Donoghue said: “It’s really exciting that we can do this cutting-edge space research right from Reading. In the past, scientists had to travel to special facilities or even to Hawaii to make these kinds of observations. Now we can control this massive telescope remotely and get images of Jupiter that arrive within seconds of being taken.

“Our telescope observations enable us to take Jupiter's temperature and watch how its brightness changes, especially around the poles where spectacular light shows called auroras happen. These auroras are incredibly powerful, driven by hundreds of trillions of watts of energy. Monitoring these auroras helps us understand how energy flows through Jupiter's atmosphere and how the planet interacts with its surrounding space environment.”

Images recovered from the observations show Jupiter in infrared and bright auroras at the planet’s poles. The photographs also show a black circle in front of Jupiter, which is a moon called Callisto. The moon is so bright that the pixels appear black. 

Re-watch a live stream from the W.M. Keck Observatory via YouTube. 

#SpaceStars celebrates the cutting-edge science and exciting events involving the University of Reading’s world-leading astronomers.

Images: 

Top left: Dr James O'Donoghue directing observations. 

Right: Jupiter in infrared. 

Bottom: The W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii