Relevance: prelims/mains: G.S paper III: Science and tech
According to the study analysing Juno mission’s data, zonal winds around Jupiter alternating east-west jet streams can only descend to 3,000 km in the atmosphere. That why Jupiter’s stripes are only skin deep.
About:
- The stripes of colour on Jupiter are called its bands.
Types:
- There are two types of bands on Jupiter.
- The light-coloured bands are called ‘zones’ and show regions where the gas is rising.
- The dark-coloured bands are called ‘belts’ and show where gas is sinking.
Cause:
- Jupiter’s stripes or ‘bands’ are caused by differences in the chemical composition and temperature of the atmospheric gas.
- It used to be thought that the only cause for these bands was the strong atmospheric winds coupled with strong convection cells circulating material between different layers of the atmosphere.
- However, it is now thought that Jupiter’s moons also play an important role in making Jupiter stripy by tugging on the planet’s atmospheric convection cells.