New Hubble Images of Jupiter

On Wednesday, NASA released a number of images acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of its re-commissioning period following the Shuttle Repair and Service mission back in May. One of the images released is a full-disk color image of Jupiter taken four days after the impact of a ~0.3 kilometer (330-yard) wide comet or asteroid in the giant planet's south polar region. The temporary impact scar can be seen as dark splotch at bottom right. A portion of this image was released back in July as part of the global campaign to monitor the impact scar. In addition to the impact scar, this image also shows some beautiful atmospheric waves in Jupiter's northern hemisphere.

Another great image released by the Hubble team shows the Butterfly Nebula as captured by the new Wide Field Camera 3. The image shows the glowing gas and dust cast off by the dying star at the center of the image (unseen because of the large amount of dust between the star and us). Very striking!

Link: Collision Leaves Giant Jupiter Bruised [www.hubblesite.org]