Clouds Dance in Jupiter Movie Clips

Clouds Dance in Jupiter Movie Clips

November 20, 2000

Contact:


Guy Webster, JPL, (818) 354-6278


Lori Stiles, University of Arizona, (520) 626-4402

Two short movie clips of Jupiter based on images taken by NASA's Cassini
spacecraft show dynamic clouds in action on the giant planet.

One clip, from Cassini images taken at uneven time intervals over a five-day
period in October, catches winds swirling counterclockwise around Jupiter's
Great Red Spot. Dark and light bands that form horizontal stripes around the
planet can be seen rushing in opposite directions to each other. The other
clip shows the reverse side of Jupiter, and smooths out the motion of the
bands by including some intermediate false frames between real images taken
by Cassini.

The movies/images are available from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/jupiter

or click below to view the larger image.

and from the web site of the Cassini Imaging Science team at the
University of Arizona, Tucson, at

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/.

Cassini will pass most closely to Jupiter, at about 10 million kilometers
(6 million miles) away, on December 30th. It will use a boost from Jupiter's
gravity to reach its ultimate destination, Saturn. While near Jupiter, it is
studying that planet's atmosphere, magnetic field and rings in collaboration
with NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since Dec. 7,
1995. More information on the joint Cassini-Galileo observations is available
at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby.

Additional information about Cassini is available online at:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini and Galileo missions for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Media Relations Office

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Pasadena, Calif. 91109.

Telephone (818) 354-5011