Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Shapeshifting in Ways 'Never Identified Before' 25
An anonymous reader writes: A massive storm has been raging on Jupiter for centuries, and, for the most part, has appeared very serious. A new series of detailed images, however, revealed that the famous red cyclone can get a little squiggly, bulging into different shapes and sizes over a short period of time.
Astronomers used the Hubble space telescope to look at Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) from December 2023 to March 2024, and they observed the massive storm changing dimensions over the 90-day period. The reason behind this unexpected shapeshifting is unknown, but it revealed that the famous red storm is not as stable as it seemed. The results of the Hubble observations are detailed in a study published Wednesday in The Planetary Science Journal.
Using Hubble's observations, the team of astronomers behind the new study measured the Great Red Spot's size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over one full oscillation cycle. The combined images act like a time-lapse of the storm's changing behavior, revealing its famous red eye varying in size, while its core gets brighter when the Great Red Spot is at its largest during the 90-day cycle.
Astronomers used the Hubble space telescope to look at Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) from December 2023 to March 2024, and they observed the massive storm changing dimensions over the 90-day period. The reason behind this unexpected shapeshifting is unknown, but it revealed that the famous red storm is not as stable as it seemed. The results of the Hubble observations are detailed in a study published Wednesday in The Planetary Science Journal.
Using Hubble's observations, the team of astronomers behind the new study measured the Great Red Spot's size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over one full oscillation cycle. The combined images act like a time-lapse of the storm's changing behavior, revealing its famous red eye varying in size, while its core gets brighter when the Great Red Spot is at its largest during the 90-day cycle.
Serious (Score:3)
A massive storm has been raging on Jupiter for centuries, and, for the most part, has appeared very serious.
I'm sorry, but what does that mean? It isn't a casual storm? I mean the eye is larger than Earth...
Re: (Score:2)
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Er... no. The whole storm is about 1.3 earths [wikipedia.org], and the eye is not a well defined feature the way it is with hurricanes on earth. You could approximate the darker swirl in the center at about a quarter earth.
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It's also not necessarily correct. There's growing doubt that it's the same storm that was observed in the 1600s and early 1700s. We can say it's been around for at least ~150 years, and probably ~200, though.
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(So I guess 200 would qualify as "centuries", but it's the bare minimum of that description)
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It's seriously awesome.
It's just pinggig Europa (Score:3)
It's just pinging Europa, they've warned us about leaving Europa alone:
https://www.goodreads.com/quot... [goodreads.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I made a similar joke....good ones.
But I'm curious, where do you live where you are actually taxed on climate change?
What and how much do they tax you on...?
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I hadn't heard about this before, interesting.
I wonder if this is something in other states too?
Nothing here where I live (New Orleans)....hell, I've never lived in a state where they even check your tailpipe emissions....
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But I'm curious, where do you live where you are actually taxed on climate change?
Washington State.
What and how much do they tax you on...?
We're not really certain. The tax can't be itemized because that might "confuse" the voters. It seems to add about $0.50 per gallon of gas.
Jupiter is not sending its best (Score:3)
"That big ugly eye keeps looking us very disrespectfully. As dictator, I mean President, I will nuke it away blind and all the planets will finally respect Earth. Even Uranus laughs at us under Kamjoe, so sad.
And I'll make Jupiter build us rings like Saturday's rings and pay for it! Earth deserves big beautiful rings, not like those loser planets with smelly air, so smelly, everyone says so. The best planet should have the best rings! We and we alone run the Solar Thing,
Galileo was wrong, his dad never paid his Hotel bills and his mom ate the lobby plants, we saw them, all losers. #MEGA!"
Climate change (Score:4, Funny)
This is clear and evident climate change. Whatever we're doing here on earth, we clearly need to stop - it's impacting our entire solar system!
Hey! (Score:3)
From TFA
Unlike hurricanes on Earth, the Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, which suggests that itâ(TM)s a high-pressure system.
How do they know which way clocks on Jupiter turn?
Suspect (Score:3)
It must be due to climate change on Earth.
Astronomers take note... (Score:2)
If you happen to notice a self-replicating cloud of objects within the storm whose dimensions are of a ratio of 1:4:9 .... consider permanently relocating to Alpha Centauri.