Dec 22 - Jupiter Cyclones, Oldest Trees

December 22 Jupiter Cyclones, Oldest Trees by:

Jupiter's south pole as seen from the Juno spacecraft on November 4, 2019. These swirling spots are cyclones at Jupiter's pole. The whole hexagonal arrangement of cyclones is large enough to dwarf the Earth. The central cyclone can be compared to the continental U.S. The smallest one, in the lower right - a new one, seen for the first time in November - can be compared to Texas. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ SwRI/ ASI/ INAF/ JIRAM. Click in to see the size comparisons.

Don't miss these cyclones on Jupiter, and more The Juno spacecraft - which has been orbiting Jupiter since July of 2016 - acquires close-up images of the planet at every perijove, or closest point. That happens about every 53 days. The batch of images acquired by the craft in early November, when it swung to within 2,175 miles (3,500 km) of the cloudtops at Jupiter's south pole, are particularly mind-blowing. Plus, there's big news from Juno's November flyby: the craft discovered that Jupiter’s south pole has 7 large, well-defined cyclones now, instead of the 6 seen previously. These cyclones appear in a hexagonal (6-sided) pattern at Jupiter's pole, rather than the pentagonal (5-sided) pattern seen previously. Juno's next perijove is coming up on December 26. Get updated here, and view Juno's latest amazing images.  Remains of Earth's oldest forest found in New York Scientists have discovered what's now Earth's oldest known forest, at a sandstone quarry near Cairo, New York. It dates back some 386 million years. Read more. CHEOPS mission will shed light on strange new worlds After a one-day delay, the European Space Agency successfully launched its CHEOPS mission last week, on the morning of December 18, from the spaceport in French Guiana. CHEOPS is the first ESA mission dedicated to studying exoplanets, those distant worlds orbiting other stars. NASA's planet-hunting space missions, first Kepler and now TESS, have been finding new exoplanets. CHEOPS will study hundreds of exoplanets already known to exist - out of 4,000-plus now confirmed - to determine their sizes, masses, densities and possible atmospheres. Read more.

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Look for Cassiopeia on winter evenings The constellation Cassiopeia - sometimes called The Lady of the Chair - is famous for having the shape of a telltale W or M. Read more.

Wow! Another image from Juno at Jupiter Who knew Jupiter was this incredible? In this image from the Juno spacecraft - from its September 12 flyby - south is up. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ SwRI/ MSSS/ JunoCam. Image processing by citizen scientist Prateek Sarpal. See more amazing images from Juno. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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