Jupiter Today | 29 August 2015 | Busy Day

Hello!  A pretty busy day at Jupiter from Earth's point of view.

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.

Jupiter has just now passed Superior Conjunction.  These images blow me away they are so incredibly beautiful.  Here's the current SOHO image showing the steady progress of Jupiter across its field of view:

Here's an image from the SOHO LASCO C3 camera.  Jupiter has reappears into this view, but also appearing yesterday is a new sungrazing comet!  Keep an eye on this one over the next few days -- no one knows if it'll make it around the sun or not:

The graph below shows the positions of the four Galilean moons over the next 24 hours as seen from Earth.  The curved lines show the path of each moon through time.  The dark band in the center is Jupiter.  The x-axis is the distance, in arc seconds, from the center of Jupiter:

By 0h UTC, Io is moving behind Jupiter and will be going into quad 1 headed east.  Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are all in quad 2 heading west.  All three of these moons will transit Jupiter today.  No human will see this event.  So does it happen?

At 6h UTC, Io is firmly in quad 1 moving east.  Europa is just past transit and is now in quad 3 moving west.  Ganymede is transiting Jupiter and will be joining Europa in quad 3.  Callisto continues in quad 2 headed west.

By 12h UTC, Io is at eastern elongation and is moving into quad 2 moving west.  Europa and Ganymede are now firmly in quad 3 moving west the rest of the day.

At 18h UTC, Io is firmly in quad 2.

By 0h UTC tomorrow, Io has transited Jupiter and is now in quad 3 headed west.  Callisto is transiting Jupiter and is moving into quad 3 headed west.

At 20:41 UTC, Io goes through an apojove at a distance of 423,498.2 km.

At 0h UTC, the position of Jupiter is RA 10h 23m 18.4s, DEC +11d 00m 20.5s.  The phase angle is 0.335 degrees, which is 0.112 degrees greater than yesterday.  The angular separation between Jupiter and the Sun is 1.785 degrees, which is 0.594 degrees greater than yesterday.  The distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 806,128,540 km, which is 36341 km further apart than yesterday.  Jupiter is moving away from the Sun at a velocity of 1,515.208 km/h, which is 5.75 km/h slower than yesterday.  The distance between Jupiter and Earth is now getting less and less every day at a distance of 957,140,657 km, which is 46,047 km less than yesterday.  Jupiter and Earth are moving towards one another at a velocity of 1,918.625 km/h, which is 1,288.792 km/h faster than yesterday.  We are now accelerating towards Jupiter.

At 00:08 UTC, Io moves behind Jupiter.  From 01:34 to 04:25, Europa's shadow transit Jupiter.  From 01:38 to 04:30 UTC, Europa transits Jupiter.  At 02:28, Io reappears from behind Jupiter.  From 04:49 to 08:24 UTC, the shadow of Ganymede transits Jupiter.  From 04:58 to 08:34 UTC, Ganymede transits Jupiter.  From 21:24 to 23:42 UTC, the shadow of Io transits Jupiter.  From 21:25 to 01:44 UTC tomorrow, the shadow of Callisto transits Jupiter.  From 21:27 to 23:45, Io transits Jupiter.  From 21:48 to 02:18 UTC tomorrow, Callisto transits Jupiter.

The Glorious Orbital Ribbons:

Jupiter is so near Superior Conjunction 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.