木星的大气层仍在上演一出好戏

木星的大气层仍在上演一出好戏

Jupiter's atmosphere is quite simply a work of art. With an atmosphere that best resembles the sun, Jupiter is predominantly made up of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of ammonia, sulfur, methane and water vapor. Strong east-west winds in the planet's upper atmosphere travel at 400 mph, with dark belts and light zones reflecting different compositions of chemicals.

木星的大气层简直就是一件艺术品。木星的大气层最像太阳，主要由氢和氦组成，还有少量的氨、硫、甲烷和水蒸气。在这颗行星的上层大气中，强烈的东西风以每小时400英里的速度吹过，暗色带和亮色带反射出不同的化学成分。

Clouds swirl around Jupiter's northern hemisphere. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)

Thanks to NASA's Juno spacecraft (which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016), we can admire Jupiter's beauty up-close.

多亏了美国宇航局的朱诺号宇宙飞船(自2016年7月以来一直环绕木星运行)，我们可以近距离欣赏木星的美丽。

On Feb. 12, Juno performed its 18th flyby from about 8,000 miles away and captured the image seen above. The swirling clouds and circular area are part of a jet stream region in the northern hemisphere called "Jet N6." Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this color-enhanced image by using data made available to the public.

2月12日，“朱诺”号在大约8000英里外进行了第18次飞越，并拍摄了上图。这些漩涡云和圆形区域是北半球一个名为“N6”的急流区域的一部分。公民科学家凯文·m·吉尔利用向公众提供的数据创造了这张彩色图像。

A stunning series of photographs captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft highlights the complicated dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstad/Sean Doran)

In this series of images, you can see an anticyclonic white oval, called N5-AWO, in the far left image. As you move through the series, you can still see the white oval, albeit from a slightly different angle from Juno. You can also see the Little Red Spot (second and third images) and the North North Temperate Belt (fourth and fifth images.)

在这一系列图像中，你可以在最左边的图像中看到一个反气旋性的白色椭圆，称为N5-AWO。当你看完这个系列的时候，你仍然可以看到白色的椭圆形，尽管从一个与朱诺略有不同的角度。你也可以看到小红斑(第二和第三张图片)和北温带(第四和第五张图片)。

This sequence was taken on the night of July 15, 2018 and the very early morning hours of July 16, as Juno did its 14th close flyby of Jupiter.

这张照片拍摄于2018年7月15日晚上和7月16日凌晨，当时“朱诺”号正第14次近距离飞越木星。

This color-enhanced image of a cloud system in Jupiter's Northern Hemisphere was captured in October 2017. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran)

This view of Jupiter's stormy atmosphere is like something out of a Vincent van Gogh painting.

这幅木星暴风雨的景象就像梵高的画一样。

The image was captured in October 2017 by Juno at a distance of less than 12,000 miles above the Jovian cloud tops.

这张照片是由“朱诺”号在2017年10月拍摄的，距离木星云顶不到1.2万英里。

According to NASA scientist Jack Connerney, deputy principal investigator of the Juno mission, previous images of Jupiter have been taken at the equator where orange, red, and white hues dominate.

据“朱诺”号副首席研究员、美国宇航局科学家杰克·康纳尼介绍，之前的木星照片都是在赤道附近拍摄的，那里以橙色、红色和白色为主色调。

Juno snapped this photo of Jupiter during its seventh close pass in May 2017. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

According to Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, the white clouds shown in the image above are so high and so cool that they're likely snow clouds. As you might expect, they're a bit different from the icy storms we experience here on Earth.

据“朱诺”号的首席研究员斯科特·博尔顿称，上图中所示的白云如此之高，如此之冷，很可能是雪云。正如你所预料的那样，它们与我们在地球上经历的冰暴有些不同。

"It's probably mostly ammonia ice, but there may be water ice mixed into it, so it's not exactly like the snow that we have [on Earth]," Bolton told Space.com. "And I was using my imagination when I said it was snowing there — it could be hail."

波顿告诉Space.com网站:“可能主要是氨冰，但可能有水冰混入其中，所以它与我们(地球上的)雪不完全一样。”“当我说那里在下雪的时候，我在运用我的想象力——可能是冰雹。”

A view of Jupiter's south pole as captured by the Juno spacecraft. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

NASA was surprised to discover that the poles of Jupiter are dominated by violent cyclones measuring hundreds of miles across. The massive tempests are densely grouped and seemingly rub together across the entire polar region.

美国宇航局惊讶地发现，木星的两极被直径数百英里的强烈气旋所控制。巨大的风暴密集地聚集在一起，似乎在整个极地地区相互摩擦。

"What you see is incredibly complex features, the cyclones and anticyclones all over the poles," Bolton told The New York Times.

博尔顿在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示:“你所看到的是令人难以置信的复杂特征，极地到处都是气旋和反气旋。”

The familiar orange, yellow, and brown swirls of cloud systems near Jupiter's equator. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

Some of the massive storms churning away near Jupiter's equator, like the pearl-colored cyclone above, are roughly the same diameter as Earth.

木星赤道附近的一些大型风暴，如上面的珍珠色气旋，其直径与地球大致相同。

A view of a massive storm on Jupiter as captured by the Juno spacecraft in October 2017 from a distance of only 6,281 miles. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran)

Juno, which has been in orbit around Jupiter since July 2016, is scheduled to continue gathering data on the planet until at least July 2021. NASA will then make a decision to either extend the spacecraft's mission or, like Cassini's tour of Saturn, send it into a death plunge toward the gas giant to avoid contaminating nearby worlds.

“朱诺”号自2016年7月以来一直在木星的轨道上运行，计划至少在2021年7月前继续收集木星上的数据。然后，美国宇航局将做出一个决定，要么延长飞船的任务，要么像卡西尼号的土星之旅一样，把它送入一个死亡的深渊，以避免污染附近的星球。