Larger than Earth's: Jet stream discovered on Jupiter

Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, possesses a giant jet stream that moves at more than double the speed of that on Earth.

Scientists, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope Near-infrared camera, discovered a jet stream traversing Jupiter’s equatorial region.

The estimated jet stream speed of 320 mph is nearly twice the speed of an EF 5 tornado on Earth. The earth’s polar jet stream can reach 110 mph during winter.

The Jupiter jet stream is huge, it is 3,000 miles wide, or about the width of mainland America. This jet stream sits about 25 miles above Jupiter’s immense and ferocious clouds.

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021 from French Guiana in South America, is located 930,000 miles from Earth. It has made unique discoveries billions of light years away and even within our own solar system.

A joint project between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the telescope is designed to observe deep space objects, including galaxies, stars, and exoplanets.

Here are other discoveries from the Webb telescope: