An amateur astronomer used an old technique to study Jupiter and discovered something strange

Using commercially available old telescopes and spectral filters, an amateur astronomer named Steve Hill decided to test a long-standing theory that Jupiter's iconic swirling clouds are made up of frozen ammonia. After collecting data to map the content of this gas in the planet's atmosphere, the researcher discovered something strange.

Hill found evidence that contradicted previous models of the gas giant's atmosphere. It turned out that ammonia ice could not be the main component of Jupiter's clouds, Space.com writes.

"I was intrigued. At first, I doubted that Steve's method could create such detailed maps of ammonia," said Patrick Irwin, a scientist at Oxford University. But the analyzes dispelled the doubts, as it became clear that the amateur astronomer had discovered data that came as a surprise to the scientific world.

Preliminary assumptions about Jupiter's clouds

It is known that Jupiter's atmosphere is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of ammonia, methane, water vapor, and other gases. These latter components condense at different levels to form clouds that reflect sunlight, creating the planet's special appearance, experts explain.

Because ammonia is known to be present in Jupiter's atmosphere and is predicted to form clouds at the lowest pressure of any known gas, scientists have so far assumed that the planet's main observed upper clouds are composed of ammonia ice.

"Since we see gaseous ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere, we assumed that its main clouds are most likely composed of ammonia ice," the scientist said.

When Steve Hill presented his first observations of Jupiter to the public, Irwin Patrick contacted the amateur astronomer to understand what his research was based on.

New research

It turned out that Steve was working with a technique that was first used in the 70s and 80s, using the visible absorption bands of ammonia and methane at red wavelengths. Although the technique is well known, it hasn't been used much by scientists since, Irwin said.

According to experts, this method is called band depth analysis and is used to estimate the concentration of a particular gas based on how much light is absorbed at wavelengths specific to that gas.

Hill used the absorption bands of methane and ammonia, both well-known features in Jupiter's visible spectrum, to calculate the excess of these gases above the planet's cloud tops. In the course of the study, Steve was able to calculate and map the distribution of ammonia in Jupiter's clouds with surprisingly high accuracy.

"We know that methane is well mixed in the atmosphere, and we have a good estimate of its excess. So we can use the difference in reflection between the images seen in these two absorption bands to determine the pressure at the top of the cloud and the relative amount of ammonia," Irwin explained.

The researchers found that the reflected light was coming from cloud layers where the atmospheric pressure would be too high and the temperature too high for ammonia to condense. So ammonia ice cannot be the main component of Jupiter's clouds.

Steve's modeling suggests that the clouds are most likely composed of ammonium hydrosulfide and possibly smog formed from photochemical reactions in the atmosphere, as the color of the clouds does not match pure ice.

Both the amateur astronomer and scientists jointly concluded that a lot of complex photochemistry was taking place in Jupiter's atmosphere. Hill's observations and theory were confirmed with Irwin's help by comparison with more modern methods and telescopes.

This work emphasizes that the contributions of both professional scientists and amateur astronomers expand the boundaries of understanding the universe, experts say.

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