Juno probe's JunoCam captured an image of the gas giant's "brown barge" feature during its most recent flyby. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Jupiter's "brown barge" feature is the subject of a new photograph snapped by Juno's camera.

Like Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the brown barge is shaped by cyclone-like weather patterns in the gas giant's atmosphere. But unlike the red spot, which is round, the barge is longer and boxier.

The brown barge isn't always easy to pick out. Its colors often blend relatively seamlessly with its surroundings. The weather pattern is found in the North Equatorial Belt and South Equatorial Belt, both of which host darker clouds.

The new image was captured in September as Juno executed its 15th close flyby of Jupiter. The probe was 7,425 miles above Jupiter's tallest clouds when the photograph was taken.

The majority of JunoCam's raw images are made publicly available on NASA's website. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created the new image by turning the original JunoCam photo 90 degrees to the right, or clockwise.

As the latest JunoCam image showcases, Jupiter is home to a variety of large atmospheric structures. In addition to the Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also home to the Great White Spot, as well as intense swirling activity near the gas giant's poles and equator.</s>NASA’s Juno spacecraft has beamed back an image of a long, brown oval known as a “brown barge” — an elusive atmospheric feature in Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt. Brown barges are cyclonic regions that usually lie within Jupiter’s dark North Equatorial Belt, although they are sometimes found in the similarly dark South Equatorial Belt as well. They can often be difficult to detect visually because their colour blends in with the dark surroundings.

At other times, the dark belt material recedes, creating a lighter-coloured background against which the brown barge is more conspicuous. Brown barges usually dissipate after the entire cloud belt undergoes an upheaval and reorganises itself. Juno is giving us the first glimpses of the detailed structure within such a barge, NASA said in a statement.

The image was taken earlier this month as the spacecraft performed its 15th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was 11,950 kilometers from the planet’s cloud tops, above a southern latitude of approximately 22 degrees. Citizen scientist Kevin M Gill created the image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager, NASA said.</s>Astronomers using the first telescopes once believed Mars was crisscrossed with canals.

Sadly, they were wrong, but now Nasa has announced that it’s found a barge on Jupiter – the gas giant that’s our solar system’s biggest planet.

This doesn’t mean that we’ve discovered an actual boat, because Nasa refers to formations in the clouds of Jupiter as ‘brown barges’

It has just released new images of these natural wonders which were snapped by the Juno probe.

The barge is a type of storm which results in a dark cloud that stands out against the lighter background.

Nasa wrote: ‘Brown barges are cyclonic regions that usually lie within Jupiter’s dark North Equatorial Belt, although they are sometimes found in the similarly dark South Equatorial Belt as well.

‘They can often be difficult to detect visually because their color blends in with the dark surroundings. At other times, as with this image, the dark belt material recedes, creating a lighter-colored background against which the brown barge is more conspicuous.

‘Brown barges usually dissipate after the entire cloud belt undergoes an upheaval and reorganizes itself.

‘Juno is giving us the first glimpses of the detailed structure within such a barge.’</s>Brown barges are cyclonic regions that usually lie within Jupiter's dark North Equatorial Belt, although they are sometimes found in the similarly dark South Equatorial Belt as well. They can often be difficult to detect visually because their color blends in with the dark surroundings. At other times, as with this image, the dark belt material recedes, creating a lighter-colored background against which the brown barge is more conspicuous. Brown barges usually dissipate after the entire cloud belt undergoes an upheaval and reorganizes itself. Juno is giving us the first glimpses of the detailed structure within such a barge.

This image was taken at 6:26 p.m. PDT on Sept. 6, 2018 (9:26 p.m. EDT) as the spacecraft performed its 15th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was 7,425 miles (11,950 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, above a southern latitude of approximately 22 degrees.

Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The image has been rotated 90 degrees to the right from the original image.</s>During its 15th flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a rare image of a Jovian “brown barge.” It’s not nearly as impressive or picturesque as the Great Red Spot, but this big brown splotch is yet another reminder of many complex atmospheric processes happening on our Solar System’s largest planet.



Also known as brown ovals, brown barges are large cyclonic regions that typically form in Jupiter’s dark North Equatorial Belt or, less frequently, in the dark South Equatorial Belt, according to NASA. This particular storm is located in the southern belt.

Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016, took this picture on September 6, 2018 at a distance of 7,425 miles (11,950 km) from the planet’s cloud tops. The color-enhanced image was created by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill, who used data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam, which is accessible to the public. NASA says it’s the first close-up view of this atmospheric phenomenon, providing an unprecedented glimpse of the detailed structures within the storm.

Brown ovals are typically hard to see, but this time we got lucky. As NASA describes in a press release, “They can often be difficult to detect visually because their color blends in with the dark surroundings. At other times, as with this image, the dark belt material recedes, creating a lighter-colored background against which the brown barge is more conspicuous.”



This atmospheric feature is reminiscent of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot—an anticyclonic storm that’s been continuously observed by astronomers for the past 350 years. Unlike the persistent Great Red Spot, however, brown barges don’t last very long. This storm will eventually run its course, dissipate, and likely go through a new cycle of reorganization. Most features within Jupiter’s belts and zones are short-lived, lasting anywhere from three to 15 years.

Juno has now completed 15 flybys of the gas giant. Its next close encounter will happen on October 29, 2018. The good news is that Juno is still less than halfway through its mission; the spacecraft is scheduled to make another 20 flybys, the final one occurring on July 30, 2021. Hopefully there will be plenty more brown splotches and other exotic phenomenon in the months and years to come.</s>Jupiter Mines Limited ("Jupiter") is pleased to announce an interim unfranked dividend of $0.05 per share. This equates to a near 100% payout ratio post South African withholding tax and Jupiter income tax payment.

The dividend record date is 24 September 2018 and will be paid on 10 October 2018. Please refer to the Notification of Dividend/Distribution released to ASX for full details.

Tshipi has continued to deliver exceptional performance, resulting in healthy returns for Jupiter shareholders since FY2017.

Jupiter has also been added to the S&P/ASX 300 Index, effective 24 September 2018.

"Jupiter aspires to be the ASX vehicle of choice for investors looking to achieve crude steel and evolving battery material exposure. Our primary focus remains to put substantial cash into the shareholders pocket every six months. We endeavour to deliver this by focusing on a simple growth strategy aimed at opportunistic sales expansion (Tshipi has a well-established infrastructure capable of delivering up to 5mtpa) and cost reductions at Tshipi. We will consider value-accretive options to increase our underlying stake in Tshipi as well as regional consolidation in the Kalahari basin", commented Jupiter's CEO Priyank

Jupiter's Chairman, Brian Gilbertson also remarked "I am delighted that Jupiter has declared such a healthy first dividend and delivered upon its key IPO undertaking. This is a result of Tshipi H1 sales materially exceeding the H1 estimate for the FY2019 business plan, along with robust manganese prices and cost reductions achieved over this period. The yield on distributions made by Jupiter since FY2017 to date are unprecedented in the mining industry".

Dividend yield for the half year to 31 August 2018, based on closing price of $0.345 on 14 September 2018.</s>NASA's Juno probe reached Jupiter in July 2016, and scientists' view of the solar system has not been the same since.

The $1 billion mission has taken stunning images of the gas giant several hundred million miles from Earth.

More importantly, though, the tennis-court-size spacecraft has probed some of the planet's deepest, darkest secrets with a suite of high-tech instruments.

Here are some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries made by Juno at Jupiter — and a taste of what's possibly to come, since the probe has several years of exploration left before NASA crashes it into the planet.

Juno flies in an elliptical orbit around Jupiter, getting close to the planet once every 53.5 days.

Juno's closest flyby of Jupiter lasts several hours and is called a perijove. During that time, the probe flies over Jupiter's north pole and exits with views of the south pole.

Juno passes within thousands of miles of the planet's surface during a perijove, enabling the probe to make detailed and unprecedented measurements of gravity, magnetism, and plasma fields using a suite of high-tech instruments. It also beams back stunning images.

Until Juno's arrival at Jupiter in July 2016, no top-down or bottom-up images had ever been taken of Jupiter's poles.

The probe flew over Jupiter's poles for the first time and sent back data that blew scientists away.

Observatories like NASA's Hubble Space Telescope had recorded auroras at Jupiter's poles, but nobody had ever seen the enigmatic regions in the detail Juno revealed.

"[I]t looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before," Scott Bolton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and the Juno mission's leader, said in a NASA press release in September 2016.

"It's bluer in color up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms," he added. "There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to — this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter."

The planet's weather goes much deeper than anyone thought.

Juno's first ultra-close pass helped researchers peel back Jupiter's atmospheric layers like an onion and see hundreds of miles deep into the planet's hydrogen, helium, and other gases.

"The structure of the zones and belts still exists deep down," Bolton said during a news conference in 2016. "So whatever's making those colors, whatever's making those stripes, is still existing pretty far down into Jupiter. That came as a surprise to many of the scientists."

Later studies revealed that the appearance of belts, bands, and storms may originate more than 1,900 miles below the planet's gassy surface.

In April, NASA released eye-catching images of symmetric clusters of storms.

The images were created from multiple photos taken in infrared light (a wavelength that's normally invisible to us). Next, scientists merged the pictures together made them 3D to emphasize brightness and temperature.

Scientists are still trying to understand what, exactly, creates these stormy super-cells that stretch thousands of miles wide.

Most lightning is concentrated at Jupiter's north pole.

During Juno's first eight perijoves, or flybys, the spacecraft detected 377 lightning discharges via their crackle of radio emissions. When researchers mapped the locations of the lightning, they found it concentrated at the planet's poles, not its equator.

Researchers think this happens because when the sun warms Jupiter's atmosphere, the heat stabilizes the planet's mid-areas against upwelling storms. But at the poles, where it's much cooler, big cells of warm inner gases can punch to the surface and create lightning.

Weirdly, most of the lightning was recorded at Jupiter's north pole — something researchers have yet to explain.

The planet's gravity is kind of lopsided.

Juno has a special instrument that allows it to precisely map Jupiter's gravitational field. The first major results from that data show that field is slightly lopsided, with a bit more "pull" from its northern hemisphere.

Researchers think this is tied to Jupiter's deep-running weather systems, which can push huge masses of its atmospheric gases to certain parts of the planet.

Its magnetic field is also lopsided — and stronger than scientists thought.

Jupiter's magnetic field is the strongest in the solar system and drives all sorts of important behaviors, including polar auroras, plasma fields around the planet, and radiation that can threaten space missions. So it's important to understand in detail. Luckily, magnetic instruments on Juno can continuously map the planet's magnetic field.

Those readings have surprised researchers in multiple ways. They showed Jupiter's magnetic field strength is about two times more powerful than researchers previously thought.

The data also revealed that the entire magnetic field, like the planet's gravity field, is slightly lopsided. The reasons for that that have yet to be explained.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot suggests the planet is rich with water.

Many moons around Jupiter hold water and may even harbor vast oceans that are habitable to aliens. But Jupiter looks pretty dry on the surface, and shoring up evidence for water molecules inside the planet itself has proven difficult.

Juno is confronting this problem with its suite of sensitive instruments and ultra-close flybys. Researchers combined Juno's data with telescope data gathered about the Great Red Spot, which affords a deeper view of Jupiter's atmosphere. They discovered that the world may have two to nine times more oxygen than the sun — and oxygen is a key component of water.

The planet may have a "fuzzy" core.

"There seems to be a fuzzy core, and it may be much larger than anybody had anticipated," Bolton said during a NASA press conference in May 2017.

Hydrogen in the depths of Jupiter exists in a semi-gaseous, semi-dissolved — hence, "fuzzy" —state. Earth, by comparison, has outer liquid that moves around a solid core.

Jupiter's fuzzy core may be what drives its powerful dynamo and magnetic fields, sort of like the metallic dynamo at Earth's core. The previous thinking was that hydrogen — normally a gas as we know it — compressed into a liquid-metal state was the culprit for Jupiter's magnetic fields.

Auroras start with a planet's magnetic field. That field grabs charged solar particles blown into space, then races them toward the planet's poles. When the particles slam into atoms of gas in the atmosphere, they create a light show.

But Juno researchers have discovered that Jupiter's polar auroras have 10-30 times more energy than expected, and they give off that energy mostly in ultraviolet light, which is invisible to human eyes. What's more, the auroras dim when the planet rotates into darkness.

Researchers have yet to figure out how auroras work at Jupiter, though they suspect it has something to do with an energetic field of plasma around the planet, according to Space.com.

Juno found a possible new volcano on Jupiter's moon Io.

Juno was designed to study Jupiter in detail, but the planet's dozens of moons make for interesting targets, too.

The planet's moon Io — a hellish, sulfur-choked moon that's about as wide as North America and littered with volcanoes — is one example. Scientists got just a few glances at the moon decades ago, using spacecraft like Galileo and Voyager.

But in December 2017, Juno's infrared-seeing camera found what looks like a previously undetected volcano on the moon. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the world has 150 active volcanoes — yet 250 more await discovery, based on how much material is spewing off the planet's surface and into space.</s>If you thought Jupiter's Great Red Spot was odd, wait until you get a look at its magnetic field.

New data from Juno, a NASA space probe that's been orbiting Jupiter for the past two years, reveals that the gas giant has a field unlike that of any other planet.

While Earth's magnetic field is distributed symmetrically around the planet, Jupiter's is much stronger in the northern hemisphere than in the south. And whereas Earth's magnetic field lines converge rather neatly at the poles a bit like a giant bar magnet, Jupiter's field lines look helter-skelter on a map created from the data. The lines emanating from Jupiter's north return not to one point but to two: one near Jupiter's south pole and the other near its equator.

"Now we know that Jupiter's field is very different from Earth's field," Kimberly Moore, a graduate student in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and the lead author of a paper describing the research, told NBC News MACH in an email. "The main puzzle of our study is why Jupiter's field is so simple in one hemisphere and so complicated in the other."

The scientists who conducted the research don't expect a quick solution to the puzzle.

"We're just starting to work out the possible answers," said Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission and a co-author of the paper, which was published Sept. 5 in the journal Nature. "Whatever's going on inside Jupiter isn't like what's going on inside other planets."

Earth's magnetic field is believed to result from the circulation of liquid iron in our planet's outer core; as this electrically conductive material moves about — driven by heat from a solid inner core — it generates a "dipolar" magnetic field.

But the new research indicates that something very different must be happening within Jupiter. One possibility that's consistent with the new data, Bolton said, is that Jupiter's magnetic field is generated not by one mechanism, as on Earth, but by two: one occurring in a layer deep within the planet and another in a layer closer to the surface. As these hypothetical fields interact, they might interact to cause the strange field seen in the Juno data, Bolton said, adding, "Maybe there is some sort of double thing here."

Additional data to be collected by Juno could help explain the mystery — but that will take years.

The new magnetic field map is a coarse one, generated from data collected by Juno over the course of eight close passes over Jupiter's surface as it skims the planet's surface at speeds of up to 150,000 miles per hour. Bolton said the final, detailed map, to be made from data collected from a total of 32 passes, would be completed in 2021.

It will take that long because it takes Juno 53 days to compete one orbit of Jupiter — and Juno is close enough to Jupiter to collect the necessary data for only a few hours of each orbit.

Juno launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Want more stories about astronomy?
• Weird hexagon on Saturn is way bigger than scientists thought
• Gift guide for astronomy lovers: Here's the best skywatching gear</s>Set to change the way data is handled, shared and monetised, the data exchange platform developed by Jupiter Chain will allow exchanges to happen securely, protecting the privacy of the individual's personal information. Data owners will have greater control over their data, gain better access to tailored services and be rewarded directly for their data contributions.

In turn, Deloitte will advise on relevant regulations such as data laws and potential GDPR considerations for the data exchange model envisioned by Jupiter Chain, and on the technical front, Deloitte will review Jupiter Chain's blockchain architecture, design and processes.

This relationship also has a research and technical collaboration component that will see Deloitte become one of the validating nodes on Jupiter Chain's network; the first of its kind between Deloitte in Southeast Asia and a blockchain company.

"We look forward to work with a globally renowned and respected brand such as Deloitte to elevate our platform solution. I strongly believe that this strategic relationship will fuel the development of not only Jupiter Chain but the adoption of blockchain technology on a wider scale," said Miss Daphne Ng, CEO of Jupiter Chain.

"Deloitte is at the forefront of technological innovation for business growth and we view blockchain as an important enabler with potential to exponentially change the way markets operate," said Mr. Eden Spivakovsky, Deloitte Singapore Risk Advisory Director, who leads this relationship for Deloitte in Southeast Asia.

He added, "We are excited to team with Jupiter Chain and together build blockchain capabilities and deliver quality solutions to clients in Southeast Asia. Our combined expertise will allow us to drive innovation through the use of blockchain technologies and solve complex business problems for companies in the region."

Conceived by JEDTrade, the Jupiter Chain project is a Smart Consentable Data Exchange platform that aims to create a privacy preserving federated blockchain which enables the use of analytics. Data owners control their data and provide access to receive tailored services. For more information on the project, please visit jupiterchain.tech.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

All services are provided through the individual country practices, their subsidiaries and affiliates which are separate and independent legal entities.</s>SINGAPORE, Sept. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based Jupiter Chain and Deloitte announced today a strategic collaboration to implement in Southeast Asia an innovative data exchange which provides consumers with a fully transparent avenue for monetising their data by connecting with businesses on the blockchain. The partnership will leverage the strength of Jupiter Chain's blockchain solutions along with the breadth and depth of Deloitte's technology and regulatory risk management services designed to improve business capabilities in the areas of technology, risk, governance, compliance and regulation. This style of exchange is seen as the next wave of data mining, in the wake of recent scandals involving unauthorised use of data and stricter regulations around the ownership and portability of data.

Set to change the way data is handled, shared and monetised, the data exchange platform developed by Jupiter Chain will allow exchanges to happen securely, protecting the privacy of the individual's personal information. Data owners will have greater control over their data, gain better access to tailored services and be rewarded directly for their data contributions.

In turn, Deloitte will advise on relevant regulations such as data laws and potential GDPR considerations for the data exchange model envisioned by Jupiter Chain, and on the technical front, Deloitte will review Jupiter Chain's blockchain architecture, design and processes.

This relationship also has a research and technical collaboration component that will see Deloitte become one of the validating nodes on Jupiter Chain's network; the first of its kind between Deloitte in Southeast Asia and a blockchain company.

"We look forward to work with a globally renowned and respected brand such as Deloitte to elevate our platform solution. I strongly believe that this strategic relationship will fuel the development of not only Jupiter Chain but the adoption of blockchain technology on a wider scale," said Miss Daphne Ng, CEO of Jupiter Chain.

"Deloitte is at the forefront of technological innovation for business growth and we view blockchain as an important enabler with potential to exponentially change the way markets operate," said Mr. Eden Spivakovsky, Deloitte Singapore Risk Advisory Director, who leads this relationship for Deloitte in Southeast Asia.

He added, "We are excited to team with Jupiter Chain and together build blockchain capabilities and deliver quality solutions to clients in Southeast Asia. Our combined expertise will allow us to drive innovation through the use of blockchain technologies and solve complex business problems for companies in the region."

Conceived by JEDTrade, the Jupiter Chain project is a Smart Consentable Data Exchange platform that aims to create a privacy preserving federated blockchain which enables the use of analytics. Data owners control their data and provide access to receive tailored services. For more information on the project, please visit jupiterchain.tech.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

All services are provided through the individual country practices, their subsidiaries and affiliates which are separate and independent legal entities.
JunoCam captures an image of Jupiter's "brown barge", a cyclone-like shape that has weather patterns in Jupiter's atmosphere.