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Jupiter's Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear (nationalgeographic.com)

The Great Red Spot has been a fixture of Jupiter 's cloudy visage for centuries and is among the most recognizable features in the solar system. But it won't always be there. In fact, the Great Red Spot is shrinking, and recently, news stories reported that it could vanish within the next 10 or 20 years . From a report: Older observations, from the late 1800s, suggest the storm once spanned more than 30 degrees in longitude and was more of a "Great Red Sausage," says Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But the storm's shape is changing, most significantly in width, and as time marches on it's becoming less oval and more circular. Way back when, the storm stretched more than 25,000 miles across. When the Voyager spacecraft flew by in the 1970s, scientists estimated that the Spot was just 14,500 miles wide. In 2014, a Hubble Space Telescope observation put the Spot at just 10,250 miles across, and by last spring, it spanned just 10,140 miles. So when will it disappear entirely? Truth is, scientists have no idea. But if you measure the rate at which the Great Red Spot has been shrinking, and extrapolate linearly from that, it looks like the spot will vanish completely in about 70 years, says Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Problem is, "we know for certain it doesn't work like that at all," she says.

29 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. We're all fucked. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is clearly related to Global Warming. The Corporations are killing our children and Bush lied to us all.

    1. Re:We're all fucked. by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but it is not our globe that is warming in this case, so we should be ok.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  2. The anti-acne spray is finally working by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    Looks like the giant dispenser that aliens built that we call Io might have done its job at last.

  3. Climate change by stooo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Climate change is having more effects than we anticipated !

    --
    aaaaaaa
    1. Re:Climate change by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

      Given his recent accomplishment, the best Elon Musk can do is to launch a Triumph rather than Trump...

    2. Re:Climate change by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      I don't think Trump would fit in a Triumph

  4. Link with Jupiter' red spot? by Teun · · Score: 1

    I wonder if there's a link between this story and the previous one about Jupiter's disappearing Red Spot?
    The guys living there might need a new home and their wives decided a change to Blue would be nice.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  5. Clickbait Title ... by psnyder · · Score: 5, Insightful
    1. Clickbait Title
    2. Summary: Storm might decline in a linear progression until it disappears.
    3. Last sentence in summary: Scientist says it doesn't work like that
    4. Article says storm might stabilize. No one knows.

    Only actual information: Jupiter's spot has shrunk over the last 100 years. No one knows what will happen next.


    I feel like this summary & article wasted my time.

    1. Re: Clickbait Title ... by kenh · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's becoming increasingly common that the summaries contradict the headlines here on slashdot, leading the astute reader to question the function so-called editors serve...

      --
      Ken
    2. Re:Clickbait Title ... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Nonsense! It gives us an opportunity to shake our fists while saying, “Damn you, climate change! What won’t you destroy?”

      That’s time well spent, right there.

    3. Re:Clickbait Title ... by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      Hey at least it made me laugh at the end...

      Also reinforces my need not to RTFA... because spoilers!

    4. Re: Clickbait Title ... by Solandri · · Score: 1

      leading the astute reader to question the function so-called editors serve...

      I figured it out. We're the ones making the mistake by thinking that the editors serve the reader by eliminating errors and clarifying content.. They actually serve the site - their function is to increase clicks on articles and thereby ad impressions. If an error leads to more people clicking on the article, that's a win in their book.

    5. Re: Clickbait Title ... by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Whenever I see "may" or "could" language in headlines I automatically read them as "may not" or "could not". It doesn't change the accuracy of the title and I can quickly dismiss it because if I can negate the entire title without changing the meaning something is wrong and its not worth my time to click clickbait.

    6. Re: Clickbait Title ... by drew_kime · · Score: 2

      The headline is taken from the article being quoted. The summary - the three sentences that aren't the quote - accurately summarize what was reported.

      What the fuck will satisfy you?

      --
      Nope, no sig
    7. Re:Clickbait Title ... by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      Not to mention that the summary is not even consistent. 10-20 years or even 70?

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  6. More evidence, as if we needed it... by acroyear · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...to prove that climate change is real. someday people will listen, when it is too late.

    --
    "But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
    -- Joe
    1. Re:More evidence, as if we needed it... by Urinal+Pube · · Score: 1

      This is exactly what happens when we let our school children send their peers to Jupiter to get more stupider.

    2. Re:More evidence, as if we needed it... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      ...to prove that climate change is real. someday people will listen, when it is too late.

      So what you're saying is "humans don't cause climate change: look at Jupiter's red spot". :-) Careful, the deniers can turn any evidence against you. Not logically of course. Not with any basis of science, but none the less anything you say will just make them believe they are more right.

  7. Something is going to happen... by nightfire-unique · · Score: 2

    ... something ... wonderful.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
    1. Re:Something is going to happen... by thygate · · Score: 1

      Daisy, daisy.

  8. Man made global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    HAS to be the problem....or TRUMP LMAO

  9. Global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's all because of global warming, isn't it.

    Take that, climate change deniers!

  10. Let me explain this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's Bush's fau...I mean it's Trumps fault! (Sorry, wrong meme.)

  11. Maybe it will, maybe it won't... by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Nobody knows... But does that stop the bold from making unsubstantiated predictions based on mathematical models? No..

    So... If you guys are so good at forecasting the weather on Jupiter, why are you so bad about doing it here? Maybe you should pick a simpler system to model, say the stock market, and make a killing?

    This Fine article is pretty much worthless... Nobody really knows where that red spot came from, it's been there as long as we could actually see enough detail to see it, we have little proof, only theories about what keeps it going and as a result we haven't a clue how long it will be there in the future.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  12. Global warming by skovnymfe · · Score: 1

    Obviously global warming is spreading to other planets in the system. After all, it is global.

  13. Just be thrilled that we're seeing it. by foxalopex · · Score: 2

    Very few geological or planet events occur within a lifetime or so seeing this in one's lifetime is pretty unique. Recall the Hale-Bopp comet which was one of the brightest comets seen at the beginning of the millennium which won't return until long after we're dead. (some 2000+ years) Scientists aren't familiar with Jupiter weather and it also isn't well understood so we don't know exactly what's going on so it's just a wild guess as to whether the spot will ultimately disappear or get bigger. The only thing we've noticed is that there's other smaller spots on the planet which come and go so it's not likely that the big spot is forever.

  14. Re:Comments... by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised at the concerted and overwhelming level of trolling. We've always had a cadre of moronic science deniers, but this seems exceptional.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  15. Re:creimer spam alert! by Maritz · · Score: 1

    You must be really cool. Only cool people stalk users of internet forums.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  16. Re:Climate Change on Jupiter! by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Quick, someone get the Jupiterians to stop driving cars and eating meat. It's changing their climate.

    "Everything I see is proof that climate change is a horrible hippy hoax"

    -This Dickhead, 2018

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.