In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
I just wondered if it might be possible to get some radar images of Jupiter
so that the clouds could be 'seen' at the different levels.

I'm sure it's been tried -- there's been radar work done on the Galilean
satellites -- but I don't recall ever seeing any results (not that it's an
area I follow much). For a guess, you just don't see very much -- radar
astronomy is primarily for surfaces, you don't get major reflections from
clouds.

It was indeed
intriguing that the probe seems to have contradicted what everyone supposed
was the case, or did it just hit a strange point by a fluke?

It was understood before arrival, from ground and Hubble observations,
that the probe entry point had a high probability of being abnormal, by
sheer bad luck of what atmospheric features happened to be there at the
time. But nobody knows for sure *how* abnormal it was.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |