Jupiter clouds and storms: uncovering hidden oxygen in Jupiter’s atmosphere and how Jupiter formed
New Jupiter science podcast episode reveals fresh space discovery podcast insights on gas giant planets, the Great Red Spot, and solar system formation
Understand Jupiter’s oxygen, storm dynamics, and interior to transform how you think about the solar system’s largest planet
What You'll Learn:
- How Jupiter’s immense mass of 1.898×10²⁷ kg (~318 Earth masses) shapes its powerful gravity, storms, and overall atmospheric structure
- How microwave observations (1.3–50 cm wavelengths) let scientists see >20× deeper into Jupiter’s clouds than visible light ever could
- How researchers infer that Jupiter’s oxygen abundance is about 2–4× solar, compared to the Sun’s O/H of ~6.09×10⁻⁴ by number
- What Jupiter’s elevated oxygen levels reveal about how Jupiter formed and what that means for models of solar system formation
- Why gases and chemicals may move vertically through Jupiter’s atmosphere much more slowly than scientists once believed
- How storms, belts, zones, and features like the Great Red Spot can hide the true composition of Jupiter’s deep atmosphere
- What this new model suggests about the formation of other gas giant planets and exoplanets beyond our solar system
