Jupiter's Great Dark Spot

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Posted by chrisd on Wednesday March 12, 2003 @07:08PM from the places-to-visit-on-vacation dept.

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."

6 of 195 comments (clear)

Looks suspicious by MacroRex · 2003-03-12 19:14 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
Leave it alone... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-12 19:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Jupiter's probably very sensitive about it.
Dave? Is that you? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-12 19:15 · Score: 5, Funny

They didn't happen to take a close up of it and discover a cloud of spinning blocks, size 1kmx4kmx9km, did they?
Re:A moon hit the planet by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-12 20:47 · Score: 5, Informative

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.
Re:I don't know how to take this... by 6hill · 2003-03-12 22:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

I mean, space exploration is great, but so is making sure that everyone has food to eat.

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.
Re:Role of Federal Gov't. - Going a bit OT here by kilonad · 2003-03-13 03:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

Spending money on the military is fine, up to a point. When you're spending money on R&D and creating jobs, that's just fine. When you're about to spend half a billion dollars on cruise missiles alone that you'll never get back, that's not as good. Sure, people had to be employed to make those bombs, but what happens when the war is over and they aren't needed anymore? And when all the soldiers come back and look for jobs in the private sector, having fulfilled their military duties? Another flood of unemployment, bad for the economy.
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).