New Horizons Photographs Earth Sized Storm 31
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."
What are the materials? (Score:2, Funny)
reading between the media hype (Score:5, Funny)
"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..."
Re:Speed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FYI (Score:4, Funny)
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 [google.com].
What century are you in? (Score:3, Funny)
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.