Jupiter Today | 11 August 2015 | Jupiter Dance

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 in quad 4 moving east.  Europa begins the day in quad 2 heading west.  Ganymede is in quad 4 moving east and will be going behind Jupiter today.  Callisto spends another day in quad 2 moving west.

By 6h UTC, Io is still in quad 4 moving east but will be going behind Jupiter soon.  Europa is on the opposite side of Jupiter and will be transiting soon.  Ganymede is now in quad 4 moving behind Jupiter and going into quad 1 heading east.

At 12h UTC, Io and Ganymede have successfully moved behind Jupiter and are now both in quad 1 heading east.  Europa successfully transited Jupiter and is now in quad 3 moving west.

At 18h UTC, Io is near its eastern elongation and will be moving into quad 2 soon.

By 0h UTC tomorrow, Io is firmly in quad 2 moving west.  Europa is in quad 3 heading west and it coming up on its western elongation.  Ganymede continues in quad 1 heading east.  Callisto will spend one more day in quad 2 moving west.

At 01:29 UTC, Ganymede goes through an apojove at a distance of 1,071,655.2 km.  At 08:35 UTC, Io goes through a perijove at a distance of 420,033.3 km.  On the opposite side of Jupiter, Europa goes through its perijove at 08:36 UTC at a distance of 664,491.5 km.

At 0h UTC, the position of Jupiter on Earth's celestial sphere is RA 10h 08m 23.7s, DEC +12d 23m 16.6s.  The phase angle today at 0h UTC is 2.224 degrees, which is 0.137 degress less than yesterday.  The angular separation between Jupiter and the Sun as seen from Earth is 11.895 degrees, which is 0.742 degress less than yesterday.  The distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 805,466,677 km, which is 37,293 km further away than yesterday.  This gives a radial velocity between the two at 1,553.875 km/h, which is the same as it was yesterday.  Hmmmmm......  The distance between Jupiter and Earth is 953,241,963 km, which is 508,817 km further apart than yesterday.  This gives a radial velocity between the two of 21,200.708 km/h, which is 1,258.625 km/h slower than yesterday.

At 05:51, Ganymede moves behind Jupiter.  From 06:39 to 09:31, Europa transits Jupiter.  At 07:09 UTC, Io moves behind Jupiter.  From 07:09 to 10:00 UTC, the shadow of Europa transits Jupiter.  At 09:41 UTC, Io reappears from Jupiter's shadow.

No satellite mutual events today.

And here are the glorious 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.

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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.