Jupiter (click on the images to enlarge)

These are probably the highest resolution images of Jupiter ever taken from the Earth. The images were taken with the 200-inch Hale telescope and the JPL/Cornell adaptive optics system.  The adaptive optics system removes the blurring of our atmosphere. The first two images above were taken at wavelengths of strong methane absorption, so only haze and clouds high in Jupiter's atmosphere (above most of the methane) can be seen. The Great Red Spot, a long-lived storm which contains some very high clouds, is just rotating into view from the left.

The three near-infrared wavelength images were combined as red, green, and blue to form the false-color image above (Click to enlarge). However, Jupiter rotates rapidly and no correction for this has been made here, so fine details are smudged into rainbows.

The images of Jupiter were taken on December 20, 2001 by Antonin Bouchez of the California Institute of Technology who collected the data and processed the images. The research was based on observations obtained at the Hale Telescope, Palomar Observatory, as part of a collaborative agreement between the California Institute of Technology, its divisions Caltech Optical Observatories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated for NASA), and Cornell University.    

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