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Jupiter Gets New Red Spot
saskboy writes "The planet Jupiter is growing a new red spot. Jupiter is already well known for its Great Red Spot storm which is visible through modest backyard telescopes, so it will be interesting if this newer spot sticks around and grows. From the article: 'The official name of this storm is Oval BA, but Red Jr. might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color. Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. A similar merger centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.'"
It's up to us to rescue them. Thinking of the millions of innocent Jovians rotting away in their oppressive gaseous Gulags...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Just try to deny global warming now, Republicans! We have proof!
I've had this sig for three days.
It was funny in my head.
Arbitrary sig
A boy can dream...
His name is Robert Paulsen...
It's time for the Sun to sit down and have the old birds/bees chat with Jupiter. The planet will start going through some big changes these next few millenia. The fraction of helium in the atmosphere will drop significantly. Its albedo will grow wildly. New rings will start appearing at odd angles. It's nothing to be ashamed of... all gas giants go through this phase of development.
The monoliths are multiplying!
I remember reading some time ago that they've discovered ice on Mars, and that the amount of ice at the poles shrinks every year, indicating global warming.
Now, Jupiter has this new storm that's beginning to rival the classic Red Spot. Is this more sign of a warming solar trend?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
This is excellent, because the Great Red Spot has become less great and less red over recent years. When I first spotted it through a scope, it was a pretty impressive sight. Lately it has changed to become a less intense colour, leading some observers to give it names like "the Great Salmon Spot" or the "Great Brownish Smudge". It is also shrinking - being half the size it was 100 years ago.
The creation of new spots has been predicted (as part of the rapid "climate change" that has been affecting Jupiter over the past few years) and is all probably cyclical, but I was somehow excited by reading this news.
I wouldn't hang out with Jupiter for a while...it's "that time" of the millennium, and its a little cranky...
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
The article doesn't say much about what is causing these huge weather patterns to be so stable on Jupiter, and the reason is that we actually know very little about what goes on underneath the outer layers of cloud.
Our one and only atmosphere probe was a surprising success, but it was not built to last. A different probe, supported by a balloon rather than a parachute, was flown on venus and it worked well.
I think it is time to have another go at a jupiter atmosphere probe. This time try for a hot hydrogen balloon, heated by an RTG. If we don't do the basic research we will never understand the biggest planet in our solar system.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
After all, he is right next to that slut Saturn.
Sounds like the typical Chicago winter...
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
That's what I thought until I noticed the story was from yesterday, and it was because the spot had only recently turned RED from white.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Raw hydrogen needs to react with something to generate energy. And react it does! You'll almost never find pure hydrogen available except in an environment where it's very hot and breaks down chemicals, or where there's nothing else to combine with (such as the Sun itself). Raw helium reacts with nothing: it's a noble gas, and you can't harvest energy from chemical interactions with it because there are so few that occur. Ice is cold water: the energy available from it was the result of hydrogen combining with oxygen, which released a lot of energy but makes it tough to get any more energy out of it now that it's already turned into water.
Now, there are levels of Jupiter's atmosphere where more complex and useful molecules are likely, due to pressure and lots of available components. Methane, for example, or other useful hydrocarbons that would have some energy to release and could be used for fuel in various interactions should be quite popular at some levels of that very deep atmosphere. And there are some fascinating proposals for how life could eveolve there. But please actually look them up, and maybe take a basic chemistry course to learn about what "using something for energy" means about the chemicals involved.