{"id":37654,"date":"2022-10-12T10:36:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=112664"},"modified":"2022-10-12T10:49:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:49:10","slug":"jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope\/","title":{"rendered":"Jupiter\u2019s largest moons seen in sharpest views captured by an Earth-based telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Iain Todd\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 12 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Brand new images of Jupiter<\/a>\u2018s largest moons \u2013 Europa and Ganymede \u2013 are the sharpest ever captured by a ground-based telescope.<\/p>\n

The images were captured by a team from the University of Leicester\u2019s School of Physics and Astronomy, using the Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert.<\/p>\n

The news follows recently released images of Europa captured by NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Astronomers used the VLT to observe and map the surfaces of the two icy Galilean moons<\/a>, and in doing so were able to study the chemicals present in their icy crusts.<\/p>\n

Europa in particular is of interest to planetary scientists, as it is thought to have a liquid subsurface ocean and is therefore a prime target in the search for signs of life across the Solar System.<\/p>\n

It is the subject of two upcoming missions: the European Space Agency\u2019s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper.<\/p>\n

Ganymede, meanwhile, is the largest moon in the Solar System.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa, as seen by the Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO\/King & Fletcher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

These new images of Europa and Ganymede are the clearest ever captured by an Earth-based telescope, and reveal both the chemical composition and geological features of the moons.<\/p>\n

In particular, long rift-like features are visible stretching across the surface of Europa.<\/p>\n

The team of astronomers were able to record how much sunlight is reflected off the surfaces of the two Galilean moons at various wavelengths of infrared<\/a> light, which gave them spectra that could then be used to measure which substances are present at the moons.<\/p>\n

Europa\u2019s spectra show its crust is mostly made of frozen water ice, with some non-ice materials also present on the surface.<\/p>\n

Studies of Ganymede show its surface is made up of young areas containing large amounts of water ice, and much older areas mainly consisting of an unknown dark grey material<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Jupiter\u2019s moon Ganymede, as seen by the Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO\/King & Fletcher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The areas in blue in the Ganymede images are the moon\u2019s polar caps and craters: here, an impact has exposed fresh ice hidden within Ganymede\u2019s crust.<\/p>\n

The team were able to map how the size of the grains of ice varies across Ganymede\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Study lead Oliver King says: \u201cWe mapped the distributions of the different materials on Europa\u2019s surface, including sulphuric acid frost which is mainly found on the side of the moon that is most heavily bombarded by the gases surrounding Jupiter.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Very Large Telescope] has allowed us to carry out detailed mapping of Europa and Ganymede, observing features on their surfaces smaller than 150 km across \u2013 all at distances over 600 million kilometres from the Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cMapping at this fine scale was previously only possible by sending spacecraft all the way to Jupiter to observe the moons up-close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Animated gif showing the rotation of Jupiter\u2019s moon Ganymede, as seen by the Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO\/King & Fletcher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The University of Leicester\u2019s Professor Leigh Fletcher is a member of the science teams for the JUICE and Europa Clipper missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese ground-based observations whet the appetite for our future exploration of Jupiter\u2019s moons,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanetary missions operate under tough operating constraints and we simply can\u2019t cover all the terrain that we\u2019d like to, so difficult decisions must be taken about which areas of the moons\u2019 surfaces deserve the closest scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cObservations at 150-km scale such as those provided by the VLT, and ultimately its enormous successor the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope), help to provide a global context for the spacecraft observations.\u201d<\/p>\n

le.ac.uk\/physics<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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By Iain Todd Published: Wednesday, 12 October 2022 at 12:00 am Brand new images of Jupiter\u2018s largest moons \u2013 Europa and Ganymede \u2013 are the sharpest ever captured by a ground-based telescope. The images were captured by a team from the University of Leicester\u2019s School of Physics and Astronomy, using the Very Large Telescope in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":37655,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/10\/jupiters-largest-moons-seen-in-sharpest-views-captured-by-an-earth-based-telescope.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Iain Todd Published: Wednesday, 12 October 2022 at 12:00 am Brand new images of Jupiter\u2018s largest moons \u2013 Europa and Ganymede \u2013 are the sharpest ever captured by a ground-based telescope. The images were captured by a team from the University of Leicester\u2019s School of Physics and Astronomy, using the Very Large Telescope in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/37654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}