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Jupiter's Great Dark Spot
Edball writes "For more than a century astronomers thought that the Great Red Spot was the biggest thing on Jupiter. Not anymore. Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed something at least as large,
The Great Dark Spot."
In related solar system news, pajamacore writes "Space.com reports that the first extrasolar planet to have its atmosphere detected is having its gas envelope boiled off by heat and blown away by tidal forces. At present, the planet is 70% the size of Jupiter but its orbit is closer to its parent star than Mercury's is to our own Sun. It should be a treat to eventually see the planet's core and maybe it'll clue us in a bit to gas giant formation."
Maybe it's just me, but the dark spot in the center of the animation looks very artificial. It's clearly six-sided until the very end of the animation. Maybe the poor astronomer was bored and just wanted to have some material published for a change, you know, have his fifteen minutes of fame. Or it's the aliens. Always the aliens, dammit.
Jupiter's probably very sensitive about it.
They didn't happen to take a close up of it and discover a cloud of spinning blocks, size 1kmx4kmx9km, did they?
The monoliths are already forming! Now we really need to stay away from Europa.
Note to self: find someone get to work on that Bowman virus post-haste.
You're only as smart as your brain.
Cassini. Remember that name. You're going to hear a lot about Cassini over the next few years. The knowledge brought to us by that probe will make science headlines for the rest of this decade. Not bad for something that cost 15% of the Federal Foodstamp budget in FY2001.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
When will astronomers find Jupiter's G-spot?
Wouldn't the loss of mass for that planet eventually cause it's orbit to get bigger and bigger? Eventually it would reach some kind of break even point where it's no bigger than the head of small dog, no?
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
(An oldie but goodie...)
New York (AP) - The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Fulchester. The element, tentatively named Administratium, has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of 0. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons and 111 assistant vice neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons. Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction it comes in contact with. According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Administratium caused one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than one second. Administratium has a normal half-life of approximately three years, at which time it does not actually decay but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganisation. Research at other laboratories indicates that Administratium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate at certain points such as government agencies, large corporations and universities and can usually be found in the newest, best appointed and best maintained buildings. Scientists point out that Administratium is known to be toxic at any level of concentration and can easily destroy any productive reaction where it is allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how Administratium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results to date are not promising.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
when have astronomers *ever* found a G-spot?
;)
I kid, I kid
Yeah right. Learn some basic astronomy. Underneath the outer atmosphere is liquid metallic hydrogen. What does that mean? There is no true surface, and disturbance would quickly be smoothed over. Yes, many have theorized that there may be a small rocky core underneath it all, but it is insignificant compared to the the rest. I seriously doubt there'd be any surface features there, and even if there was, why would it reflect itself through such a dynamic atmosphere? I think not.
Don't forget there are two other moons have been known to have similar subterranean worlds. Very strong evidence has been discovered to support the idea of subterranean oceans beneath the surfaces of two other Galilean moons, Ganymede and Callisto. While these would be colder, there is also far less radiation to wory about. With some luck, any of these three worlds may well host life, weither microbial or maybe something more complex.
The piddling money we use on space exploration cannot even begin to solve the world's hunger problem. However, there's the odd chance the said space exploration will sometime in the future solve the world hunger problem (from results in zero-gravity growth experiments to terraforming). That slim chance is certainly better than that offered by e.g. our military. I doubt its enormous budget will in any way affect world hunger except negatively.
Okay, so mod me down for offtopic, but one thing that has always bothered me is, why don't people seriously (i.e. besides science fiction) consider the possibility of life of some form inside a gas giant? Sure, there is no liquid water, hence probably no "life as we know it", but if there are other forms of life as we don't (yet) know it, wouldn't this be an even greater discovery?
What is needed for life (of any reasonable definition) to evolve in an environment, is that arbitrarily complex structures can form in such an environment. Basically, the environment must be "interesting". Nothing ever happens on the surface of our moon, so we don't expect life to evolve there. On the other hand, all kinds of cool chemical reactions can occur in liquid water - as has happened here on Earth. But what about Jupiter's atmosphere? There certainly are interesting molecules floating about - in fact the "Great Dark Spot" is conjectured to be a cloud of hydrocarbon droplets. There is plenty of energy - kinetic (storms), electric, magnetic, some solar as well as plenty of radioactivity. What's more, the environment is HUGE. You have all ranges of pressure from near-vacuum to something ridiculously dense in the core, and everything in between. Is it possible for some region inside Jupiter to have what it takes for life to evolve? And, since there are other sources of energy besides solar, this might happen in the dark depth, where we will never find it. Maybe there's a whole civilization deep in there that we're not aware of.
Does this remind anybody else of the Slylandros in StarControl 2?
"...Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
The biggest structure is the great great white non-spot that surrounds the great dark spot.
"Learn some basic astronomy."
You mean planetography.
"Underneath the outer atmosphere is liquid metallic hydrogen. What does that mean?"
You're putting forward theory as fact and missing a several thousand kilometre thick wodge of increasingly dense gas that can stay partially stable for months or centuries in the case of the Great Red Spot.
OD
Oddly Draconis
Too cynical to live, too stubborn to die.
Explain to me how spending money on the military is bad? What else is the federal government supposed to spend our taxes on??
As far as I'm concerned, the government's 1 and only job is to protect us so that we can live our lives however we choose. It is not the federal government's job to compensate for poor financial planning. It's not the federal government's job to provide to take care of me when I won't take care of my self. It's not the federal government's job to take my hard-earned paycheck and give it to someone who probably hasn't earned it.
So let me ask you again; what SHOULD our federal taxes fund? If it's anything more than protecting our freedom, it's none of the federal government's business.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Either Cassini is really expensive for an unmanned research probe or poor people are being neglected. I mean, space exploration is great, but so is making sure that everyone has food to eat.
Look, we have enough money and food to feed everyone on the planet decently, we just don't choose to, or our governments don't choose to, or someboday somewhere has decided that we aren't going to...
The money spent on the space program is a drop in the ocean, and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact there are still people starving to death in the 3rd world. If we aren't going to spend it on feeding people anyway (and lets face it, we aren't) better to spend it doing something to advance science and human knowledge than buying another couple of B-1B bombers, surely?
Al.The Daily ACK - Eclectic posts by yet another hacker
Geez, write a personal or something...
The government has more jobs than just protecting us. Even so, "protection" is a very vague concept that entails more than just having a strong military. We the people are one in the same as the country, and so to protect us, the country must be protected as well. We don't need to just be protected from invading armies. We need to be protected from falling behind in the world as well, and that means more than just the military. In order to ensure a future for our nation (which is really why you're protecting it in the first place), you must have a basic framework within which people can live. Our people need to be educated in order to remain competitive in this global economy, therefore the government's job is also to provide basic education to its citizens. We need businesses to make and sell products that let us live our daily lives, and we need to be protected in case they grow too big. Therefore the government's job is also to create an economic infrastructure (the treasury and the mint), transportation (so that people have the freedom to travel and goods can get to where they need to be), telecommunications (or at least regulation thereof, so that people have the freedom to communicate with other people, and businesses can get their jobs done), welfare (because a temporarily unemployed person with no income cannot afford to pay bills, and therefore puts no money back into the economy, which does nothing for our nation. after a certain point, they become a drain on the economy, but welfare can be good when done properly), and taxation (because providing all of these services costs money).