Jupiter Today | 10 August 2015 | Quiet Jupiter

Hello!

JUPITER TODAY is a daily blog about the dynamic Jupiter system for the purpose of monitoring activity.

We start with the overall view of activity with the Jupiter system, showing the orbits of the four Galilean moons:

This is a view of the Jupiter system looking down on it.  Following the blue line to the left is the line of sight to Earth, while following the gray line to the left is the line of sight to the Sun.  The orbits of the four Galilean moons are shown.  The large dots indicate the position of each moon at 0h, 6h, 12h, 18h, and 24h (0h the next day) UTC for this date.  From this point of view, the moons revolve around Jupiter in a counter-clockwise motion.  For more information about this graphic, see the post from 30 July 2015.

At 0h UTC, Io starts the day at eastern elongation and moving into quad 2 heading west.  Europa is in quad 1 moving east.  Ganymede is in quad 4 moving east all day.  Callisto is in quad 2 heading west all day.

By 6h UTC, Io is firmly in quad 2 moving west.  Europa is still in quad 1 heading towards its eastern elongation.

At 12h UTC, Io is transiting Jupiter and moving into quad 3 heading west.  Europa is moving into quad 2 going west just past its eastern elongation.

By 18h UTC, Io is firmly in quad 3 going west.  Europa is now firmly in quad 2 moving west the rest of the day.

At 0h UTC tomorrow, Io has moved past its western elongation.  Europa continues to move west in quad 2.  Ganymede is in quad 4 heading east.  Callisto is in quad 2 moving west.

At 11:18 UTC, io moves through its apojove at a distance of 423,487.2 km.

At 0h UTC, the position of Jupiter on Earth's celestial sphere is RA 10h 07m 34.1s and DEC +12d 27m 46.7s.  The phase angle is 2.361 degrees, which is 0.137 degrees less than yesterday.  The separation between Jupiter and the Sun as seen from Earth is 12.637 degrees, which is 0.743 degrees less than yesterday.  The distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 805,429,384 km, which is 37,293 km further away than yesterday.  This gives a radial velocity between Jupiter and the Sun of 1,553.875 km/h, which is 4.167 km/h slower than yesterday.  Jupiter "wobbles" relative to the Sun because of the orbiting moons.  Very cool.  The distance between Jupiter and Earth is 952,733,146 km, which is 539,024 km further away than yesterday.  This results in a radial velocity of 23,715.875 km/h, which is 1,250.167 km/h slower than yesterday.

The IMCEE website is down today, so I have no events to report.  As you can see from the orbit chart above, Io is transiting Jupiter at about 17:00 UTC, and Io and Ganymede appear pretty close at the end of the day.

Orbital ribbons for today:

Jupiter is so near Superior Conjunction (taking place at 22:00 UTC on 26 August 2015) that photography and other data collection isn't practical.  We'll have to wait about a months after SC to start viewing the Jupiter system again.

Spread the word about this daily blog!  This blog is subject to evolution.  What can I do to make this blog more interesting and more informative?

Subscribe at the right column of this blog and get these posts sent to you automatically!

Please send me your feedback, comments, and questions to jupitertoday AT gmail DOT com or the comments section of this blog.

With my gratitude, the data used to create the orbit plots and ribbons was supplied by the JPL Horizons website.  The graphics showing the location of the four moons as seen from Earth are via 'Jupiter Viewer 2.8'.  Jupiter-Satellite and Satellite mutual events data is supplied from IMCEE.

Until tomorrow, I bid you Peace.