Space probe films cloud dance on Jupiter

Play movie   This brief movie shows counterclockwise atmospheric motion around Jupiter's Great Red Spot.    Play movie   This movie is a manipulated sequence showing motions in Jupiter's atmosphere over the course of five days

(CNN) -- Two brief video sequences of Jupiter released by NASA this week reveal the violent weather patterns that dominate the largest planet in the solar system.

The Cassini space probe focused its lens on the gas giant in October, capturing the swirling Great Red Spot on one side and billowing cloud streams on the other.

Jovian weather patterns are in some ways similar to terrestrial ones, scientists said. Strong jet streams blow eastward at some latitudes and westward at others. And lightning strikes are thought to be common on the gas giant. Scientists looking at one of the videos suspect small bright clouds to the west of the Great Red Spot are thunderstorms, NASA said in a statement.

In other ways the patterns are quite different. For example, the bright white ice clouds on Jupiter contain ammonia instead of water. And the Red Spot dwarfs weather systems on our planet. The feature could easily swallow two Earths.

The Red Spot clip was shot at uneven time intervals over five days. The other movie, focused on the equatorial region of the other side, includes computer-generated frames between real ones to smooth out the image sequences, NASA said.

Near the end of the latter movie, a dark shadow appears from one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.

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The Cassini spacecraft will soon conduct joint studies with an elder NASA probe in the vicinity, Galileo, and fly to within 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) of Jupiter on December 30. Afterward, Cassini will head toward its final destination, Saturn.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Cassini and Galileo missions for NASA.

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NASA
Cassini Now
The Cassini Spacecraft
Galileo Project
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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