Powerful ammonia storms have been erupting on the surface of Jupiter and it is causing the color belts to change. The storms are brought about by clouds that can be compared to the cumulonimbus thunder clouds of the Earth. These atmospheric bands found in Jupiter has made the planet even more interesting considering how these neat lines are separated as if it were drawn with a ruler. However, the rising of water and ammonia in the outer layer of clouds causes the blurring of the lines between the atmospheric bands.
As the ammonia spreads out and goes through the process of condensation, they become white plumes in the atmosphere that simply stand out. In the process, they are able to create swirls in between the different bands causing a disruption that leads to the mixing of the white and the browns altogether.
"If the plumes continue to become vigorous in nature and create more convective situations, they may be able to totally disturb one of the bands over time; although it may take a while before they are able to achieve such," said Imke de Pater, an astronomer from the University of California in Berkeley. Convection is the process when the warmer fluid that's also less dense rises above the colder fluid.
De Pater is the lead author of the study that looked into the blurring of the astronomical bands found on the planet Jupiter. The paper the team made was accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. The team presented their description of their observation of these disturbances. They basically used the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.
In regular circumstances, the ammonia top clouds are used to make up the thin top layer that rests above the brown and yellow lines. But the presence of ammonia in the atmosphere does not rise higher than the helium or hydrogen that's present there. This process makes it even more difficult for scientists to be able to figure out what could be causing the storms.
"We feel that we are lucky to have all these data, even though it was only taken a few days back," said de Pater. "With ALMA, scientists were able to observe the whole planets, its plumes and the ammonia in the atmosphere. We can actually see what is happening below the blanket of ammonia in the atmosphere."
Though it remains unclear how much disruption the plums have on the largest planet in the Solar System, but it definitely will keep the scientists hook to find out more.
