• All we can see on Jupiter is clouds, swept into parallel bands of bright zones and dark belts by the planet's rapid rotation and counter-flowing, east–west winds.

• Jupiter turns to liquid under high pressures within its interior, so the cloudy atmosphere has no distinct bottom and Jupiter's weather pattern is free to flow in response to the giant planet's rapid spin.

• Jupiter's Great Red Spot and white ovals are huge shallow anticyclonic storms, which can have diameters larger than the Earth's and last for centuries.

• Large whirling storms on Jupiter gain energy by merging with, and engulfing, smaller eddies. The little storms obtain their energy from hotter, lower depths.

• White clouds of ammonia ice form in the coldest, outermost layers of Jupiter's atmosphere. Water clouds are expected to form at greater depths, and ammonium hydrosulfide clouds should condense between the water and ammonia clouds.

• All of the clouds on Jupiter ought to be white; their colors are attributed to an active chemistry that produces complex compounds in small amounts.

• Bolts of lightning illuminate deep, wet storm clouds on Jupiter.

• When the Galileo spacecraft parachuted a probe into Jupiter, the entry site, a region of downdraft, was missing the expected three layers of clouds and it was far drier and windier than anticipated.

• The fierce winds that give rise to Jupiter's banded appearance run deep, indicating that Jupiter's ever-changing weather patterns are driven mainly from within, by internal energy rather than by external sunlight. […]