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 moved out of the field of view of SOHO, so no more SOHO images until next superior conjunction. Booooooooooooo!
Orbital Motion
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:
At 0h UTC, Io begins the day firmly in quad 1 moving east. Europa is moving behind Jupiter and will be going into quad 1 headed east. Ganymede starts the day in quad 3 moving west and very near western elongation. Callisto is in quad 4 moving east.
By 6h UTC, Io is near its eastern elongation. Europa is firmly in quad 1 moving east. Ganymede is at western elongation. Callisto is moving behind Jupiter.
At 12h UTC, Io is firmly in quad 2 moving west. Callisto is now firmly in quad 1 moving east.
By 18h UTC, Io is about to begin its transit of Juptier and Europa is near its eastern elongation.
At 0h UTC tomorrow, Io is firmly in quad 3 moving west. Europa is at eastern elongation and will be moving into quad 2 headed west. Ganymede is firmly in quad 4 moving east. Callisto is now established in quad 1 moving east for the next couple of days.
Apojoves and Perijoves
At 16:12 UTC, Io goes through an apojove at a distance of 423,490.3 km.
Relative Positions and Motions
At 0h UTC, Jupiter is at an RA of 10h 30m 43.3s and DEC +10d 18m 03.9s. The phase angle is 1.558 degrees, which is 0.139 degrees greater than yesterday. The angular separation between Jupiter and the Sun as seen from Earth is 8.359 degrees, which is 0.749 degrees greater than yesterday. The distance between the Sun and Jupiter is 806,452,460.010 km. The distance between Jupiter and Earth is 955,335,180.081 km. These distances are now calculated using the JPL Horizons data instead of my previous source. Not sure why they're different (by a few hundred kilometers) so that's something I'll have to look into a little more to see which one is "correct".
Jupiter-Satellite Events
At 02:35 UTC, Europa reappears from behind Jupiter. From 04:39 to 07:12 UTC, Io moves behind Jupiter.
Glorious Orbital Ribbons
These are the spacial and temporal connections between the four Galilean moons. This is, once again, looking down upon the Jupiter system.
When is the first image of Jupiter after Superior Conjunction going to be taken? If you have one, send it to me!
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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.
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