Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by msmash on from the unravelling-mysteries dept.

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.

8 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.

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

    Climate change is having more effects than we anticipated !

    --
    aaaaaaa
  3. 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 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
  4. 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
  5. Something is going to happen... by nightfire-unique · · Score: 2

    ... something ... wonderful.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  6. 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.