OMG pic of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter

[n2doc]

Possibly the best view of the Great Red Spot ever
Sep. 1, 2010 | 16:40 PDT | 23:40 UTC

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Icelandic amateur image processor Björn Jónsson just posted this to unmannedspaceflight.com and I thought it was so spectacular that I had to post it -- and his explanation -- here directly. It never ceases to amaze me what can be pulled out of this 30-year-old data. --ESL

by Björn Jónsson

This is a new, big mosaic of Voyager 1 images, this time showing the Great Red Spot at high resolution. The contrast and sharpness have been greatly exaggerated.

The images I used were obtained on March 4, 1979 at a distance of about 1.85 million kilometers. The first image (C1635314.IMQ) was obtained at 07:08:36 and the last one (C1635400.IMQ) at 07:45:24. The resolution is roughly 18 km/pixel.

Mosaics of some of these images have appeared before as 'official' image releases but interestingly, only three-by-two-frame mosaics were used in all cases.

My new mosaic reveals an enormous amount of details, especially in the sharpened version. Some of these details I didn't know were visible in any images of Jupiter until relatively recently. The sunlight is coming from the east (right) and because the Great Red Spot is in the southern hemisphere it's really coming roughly from the east-northeast over the Great Red Spot and the regions south of it. With this in mind, vertical relief and cloud shadows are -- I think -- visible at many locations around the Red Spot's periphery.

more

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002644/

must see big versions at link

[qb]

1. That is a really cool study in fluid dynamics.

[FSogol]

2. Too cool. Thanks for posting. n/t

[ensho]

3. looks like a fractal. but then fractals are a picture of life

fractals are a picture of a math equation.

computers = zeros and ones.

thanks for the pic.

[Kadie]

4. Beautiful.

Thanks for posting.

[EXneoCON]

5. Great pic! Great link...thanks

[Teaser]

6. There's a dark spot growing there

under magnification 1000x...omg...composed of identical objects...1 by 4 by 9.


my god, it's full of stars...

[Oceansaway]

7. thanks...n/t

[felix_numinous]

8. I can only imagine that image in motion, beautiful! nt

[pokerfan]

9. My new desktop background