NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a stunning feature of Jupiter’s atmosphere in a landmark revelation. A massive high-speed jet stream has been discovered by NASA scientists in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which could provide further insights into the intricate dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere, said the space agency.

Astronomers have unveiled a swift jet stream, moving at 515 km per hour, located approximately 40 km above Jupiter’s equator, within the lower stratosphere. This was announced by NASA on 19 October. This newly revealed high-speed jet stream, stretching over 4,800 kilometres wide, hovers above Jupiter’s equator, well above its primary cloud layers.

The study's lead author, Ricardo Hueso from the University of the Basque Country, Spain, said that this discovery has completely surprised the entire team. “What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation,” Hueso said.

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Previously, the hazy obscurity perceived in Jupiter’s atmosphere has transformed into clearly seen and trackable features, thanks to the capabilities and precision of NASA’s James Webb Telescope. The newfound clarity enables scientists to observe these characteristics following their movement with Jupiter’s rapid spin.

The recently discovered jet stream has been identified as being capable of moving at speeds on the order of 500 kilometres per hour, equivalent to twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane on Earth. This revelation was found around 40km above the clouds and within Jupiter’s lower stratosphere, presenting a spectacular perspective of the planet’s atmospheric dynamics.

The research team compared the observed winds from Webb at the upper layers with those from Hubble at the lower layers. In this way, they were able to determine wind shears and variations in wind speed with altitude. Additionally, more observations are expected to help determine whether the jet stream’s speed and altitude vary over time.

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This remarkable discovery was achieved by analysing data collected using Webb’s NIRCam in July 2022. Imke de Pater from the University of California, Berkeley, and Thierry Fouchet from the Observatory of Paris organised an Early Release Science programme which took images of Jupiter every 10 hours during one Jupiter day. The unique phenomenon appeared due to a combination of four different filters that were sensitive to changes at different altitudes in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Previous missions such as NASA’s Juno and Cassini, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope, have also observed Jupiter’s ever-changing weather patterns.

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(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)