FOR RELEASE:  November 20, 1997

PHOTO NO.:  STScI-PRC97-37


HUBBLE PROVIDES INFRARED VIEW OF MOON, RING, AND CLOUDS

Probing Jupiter's atmosphere for the first time, the Hubble 
Space Telescope's new Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object 
Spectrometer (NICMOS) provides a sharp glimpse of the 
planet's ring, moon, and high-altitude clouds.

The presence of methane in Jupiter's hydrogen- and helium-
rich atmosphere has allowed NICMOS to plumb Jupiter's 
atmosphere, revealing bands of high-altitude clouds. Visible 
light observations cannot provide a clear view of these high 
clouds because the underlying clouds reflect so much visible 
light that the higher level clouds are indistinguishable 
from the lower layer. The methane gas between the main cloud 
deck and the high clouds absorbs the reflected infrared 
light, allowing those clouds that are above most of the 
atmosphere to appear bright. Scientists will use NICMOS to 
study the high altitude portion of Jupiter's atmosphere to 
study clouds at lower levels. They will then analyze those 
images along with visible light information to compile a 
clearer picture of the planet's weather. Clouds at different 
levels tell unique stories. On Earth, for example, ice 
crystal (cirrus) clouds are found at high altitudes while 
water (cumulus) clouds are at lower levels. 

Besides showing details of the planet's high-altitude 
clouds, NICMOS also provides a clear view of the ring and 
the moon, Metis. Jupiter's ring plane, seen nearly edge-on, 
is visible as a faint line on the upper right portion of the 
NICMOS image. Metis can be seen in the ring plane (the 
bright circle on the ring's outer edge). The moon is 25 
miles wide and about 80,000 miles from Jupiter. 

Because of the near-infrared camera's narrow field of view, 
this image is a mosaic constructed from three individual 
images taken Sept. 17, 1997. The color intensity was 
adjusted to accentuate the high-altitude clouds. The dark 
circle on the disk of Jupiter (center of image) is an artifact 
of the imaging system. 

Credits: Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University), and NASA

Team members: Louis Bergeron (Space Telescope Science 
Institute), Nancy Chanover (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center), 
and Amy Simon (New Mexico State University)

NOTE TO EDITORS:

This is an electronic photo release.

A photo and caption are available via the World Wide Web at
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http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Latest.html or
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html.  

Images are available via the World Wide Web at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/juprir.gif (GIF),
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/jpeg/juprir.jpg (JPEG).

Image files also may be accessed via anonymous ftp from 
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jpeg/juprir.jpg (JPEG).  Higher resolution digital versions 
(300 dpi JPEG) of the release photograph are
available in /pubinfo/hrtemp: 97-37.jpg (color) and 
97-37bw.jpg (black & white).  A full resolution TIFF 
image is available in /pubinfo/tiff/1997/37.tif.