New Horizons Photographs Earth Sized Storm

Matthew Sparkes writes "The New Horizons spacecraft has taken the closest ever photos of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, which is actually a storm the size of Earth which has been raging since 2005. New Horizons targeted the storm when it passed Jupiter to gain speed for its journey to Pluto. The source of the red hue remains an open question. Some scientists believe hurricane-like winds lift material from beneath Jupiter's cloud-tops up to an altitude where radiation from the Sun can chemically alter it, producing the red colour. Scientists have estimated that winds in the storm were whipping around the atmosphere at 180 metres per second."

Comments

This is Katrinas big sister

[malkir]

Also known as "Sally" FP

Re:This is Katrinas big sister

[AP2k]

Damn you, global warming!

What are the materials?

[stratjakt]

That get whipped up? Whats jupiter made of? Cheese? Cuz I like cheese.

Re:What are the materials?

[PrescriptionWarning]

Well wallace and gromit have already claimed the cheese from the moon, so you better act quick before they do jupiter too...

what what

[trollofdoom]

in the GNAA

Re:what what

[Anonymous Coward]

IM CONVINCED

where can i find some literature about joining your proud orginization?

Re:what what

[Anonymous Coward]

I know I shouldn't be replying to GNAA trolls, but the video linked to is f-ing hilarious.

Re:what what

[malkir]

We need a -1 Flaming mod

reading between the media hype

[weighn]

while stuck in some outer planet backwater bar, I overheard Jupiter's disgruntled manager - after one too many Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters (ie one) - dejected over recent interest in Saturn.

"Damn that Saturn to hell! It's smaller, it has less moons, its further away from ALL the major hotels in the solar system. It's more eccentric and possibly on drugs."

"My job should be easy. I manage the best darn gas-giant in town - but getting press is damn near impossible!"

"'Ohhh! Look at its pretty rings!' They quip. Simpletons. 'Ohh. Geometric shape!' BIG DEAL! Haven't they spun a bucket of water and looked inside?! My guy has rings too! And some pretty neat storms. Why can't those paparazzi scum run a story on that? God knows my gaseous client gets enough exposure, what with these sling-shot detours and such..."

FYI

[StikyPad]

winds in the storm were whipping around the atmosphere at 180 metres per second.

Which, for those of us unaccustomed to describing velocity in the metric system, is 402 MPH.

I'll allow someone else figure out how many Libraries of Congress per fortnight that would be.

Re:FYI

[Rick Genter]

I'll allow someone else figure out how many Libraries of Congress per fortnight that would be.

No, no, no. The standard unit for speed is furlongs per fortnight. And 180 meters per second is 1,082,319.26 furlongs per fortnight.

Re:FYI

[beavis88]

I think 238,110 (American) football fields per fortnight is a lot more intuitive, personally.

Re:FYI

[whitehatnetizen]

I find it slightly disconcerting that someone who calculated m/s into mpg get's modded insightful rather than informative :-D
Shamelessly ripped from the internet oracle digest #365
Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to determine the United States
measurement challenge once and for all.
In the blue corner we have our current US champion for many years,
weighing in at 220.4623 pounds, our hero: Igor Imperial.
In the red corner we have, weighing in at 100kg all the way from
France, and currently storming the world wherever he goes, our
challenger: Mean Mr Metric.
It will be a great fight today and one that may change the course of
history. Can Mean Mr Metric defeat Igor Imperial and change US life
forever, or will Igor outwit the classy opponent and maintain his place
in history. We are about to find out.
Gentlemen, I want a clean fight. Shake hands and come out fighting on
the bell.
Round 1: "DONG"
They both approach each other and meet in the middle of the ring.
Metric has trained well and opens with the first punch:
How many feet in a mile?
Imperial answers after a moments hesitation with:
5280
"Good exchange there Bob, hasn't worried either of them."
"No Bill, it's still neck and neck, although Imperial took a fraction
of a second to divert that question."
Imperial decides to attack with a similar strategy:
How many metres in a kilometre?
Instantly, Metric flashes back with:
1000
"Wasn't that a great counter by Metric eh Bob - so quick. He's looking
good tonight"
"Sure is Bill"
Imperial goes on the attack again with a curly one:
How much does a litre of water weigh?
Metric comes back quickly with:
1 kilogram
"Great offense from Imperial there Bob. Combining both measurement of
mass and volume - well thought out."
"Sure thing Bill, but I think he may have left himself a bit vulnerable
here. If I can guess, Metric should follow up with..."
How much does a pint of water weigh?
Imperial reels back with such a tough one. He hesitates.
"Thought he'd do that Bill, he's looking shaky. I wonder how he's
trained for this?"
Suddenly, Imperial's eyes light up and he comes back with:
1.0431758 pounds
"Well Bob, our champ got out of that one but it was a bit messy eh?"
"It was Bill. I think he was lucky there. Metric should come back with
a tough one here if he's got it in him."
As Metric prepares for an offense, the champ Imperial slips in a sneaky
one:
If 1mm of rain falls on 1 square metre of roof, how much water
is collected?
"What a shot Bob! That'll hurt him."
Metric defends without a flinch:
1 litre
"No Bill, Metric has trained too well and has got too much ability.
That reply was instananeous. You know, I think he should follow the
same strategy as before and follow up with..."
If 1 point of rain falls on 1 square foot of roof, how much water is
collected?
"Imperial is down!"
1 2 3 4 5 6 7...
7.97922 fl oz
"What an answer! Our boy's still got guts!"
"DONG"
End of Round 1.
"Bill, that bell came just at the right time. This fight shouldn't last
the next round."
"You're rig

Re:FYI

[whitehatnetizen]

I meant MPH.... an edit button, my kingdom for an edit button.

Re:FYI

[StikyPad]

Yeah, you had me worried for a second that I'd posted the wrong units.. after checking my post though, I was about to ask you what the answer was in MPG ;)

Re:FYI

[Drey]

Could you post a link back to the archives, next time? We could use a little more exposure. :)

Speed

[nbannerman]

Who in their right minds decided to use 180 metres a second?

Call it 432mph and it'll make a lot more sense. (Calculation made roughly!)

That said, 432mph doesn't sound that fast to me. Ok, it is a helluva lot faster than storms here on earth, but I thought the majority of passenger jets travelled around the 500mph, which certainly makes it sound less impressive to me.

Re:Speed

[FMota91]

Who in their right minds decided to use 180 metres a second? Scientists.

Re:Speed

[dohzer]

Scientists have two minds?
Well I guess the ones who use the metric system are slightly more intelligent.

Re:Speed

[icensnow]

Exactly. Even in this unfashionable sector of the galaxy, all of your weather forecast and climate predictions are done with models that see everything in SI units, including winds in meters per second. They are then converted to other units for the benefit of ape=descended life forms who still think that digital watches are a neat idea. (Sorry, an earlier post got me into HHGTTG mode.) What's particularly odd when you're looking at raw model output is to see precipitation rates also given in meters per second. (There are generally a lot of zeros after the decimal point.)

Re:Speed

[MrSpiff]

and the rest of the metric world.

Picture

[T-Bone-T]

"Click to enlarge". Ok. That's all you got? I was hoping for larger.

Re:Picture

[sighted]

You can see the originals, as the New Horizons team posts them, here: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/. If you're interested in following the many space probes that are active right now at Venus, Mars and Saturn, you can also keep up with all of them at ridingwithrobots.org.

"Goatse Jr."

[Tablizer]

Nuf sed

What century are you in?

[argent]

Call it 432mph and it'll make a lot more sense.

Wake up man, this is the century of the fruitbat! Use the metric system (named after Compte Nobee Metric, inventor of the steam pantechnicon and the pornograph) like NASA has ever since that Mars probe was lost because they were calculating fuel in hogsheads rather than barrels.

Re:What century are you in?

[gstoddart]

named after Compte Nobee Metric, inventor of the steam pantechnicon and the pornograph

Intriguing ... the guy who invented metric also invented porn??

(And no, I'm not googling it from work to find out what it really is ... ;-)

Cheers

Re:What century are you in?

[mattatwork]

Wake up man, this is the century of the fruitbat! Use the metric system (named after Compte Nobee Metric, inventor of the steam pantechnicon and the pornograph) like NASA has ever since that Mars probe was lost because they were calculating fuel in hogsheads rather than barrels. Who is "Compte Nobbe Metric"...? I didn't find him with Google or Wikipedia....

"the size of Earth"?

[alleycat0]

According to Wikipedia: "The Great Red Spot's dimensions are 24-40,000 km west to east and 12-14,000 km south to north. It is large enough to contain two or three planets the size of Earth."

Re:"the size of Earth"?

[alleycat0]

Oops - didn't see that it was the *LITTLE* red spot that TFA referred to :/ Is there a way to withdraw one's posts?

Re:"the size of Earth"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, no. The programming wizards behind this BBS system, Slashdot's primary product, haven't thought of an edit button yet.

Who is "Compte Nobbe Metric"...?

[argent]

He's obviously a contemporary of the uniquely talented Bergholt Stuttley Johnson.