Powerful stratospheric winds measured on Jupiter for the first time

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers have directly measured winds in Jupiter's middle atmosphere for the first time. By analyzing the aftermath of a comet collision from the 1990s, the researchers have revealed incredibly powerful winds, with speeds of up to 1450 kilometers an hour, near Jupiter's poles. They could represent what the team has described as a "unique meteorological beast in our Solar System."

What is ALMA Astronomy News?

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) -the largest astronomical project in existence- is a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed of 66 high precision antennas located in northern Chile. ALMA is an international partnership of ESO (Europe), NSF (U.S) and NINS (Japan) together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile We love the Cosmos!