Hubble Space Telescope/European Space Agency/NASA
A second red spot on Jupiter is at left.
Posted on 05/07/2006 11:05:13 AM PDT by neverdem
For the past few months, astronomers have tracked an emerging second red spot on Jupiter, at left, a growing rival about one-half the diameter of the planet's trademark Great Red Spot. The Hubble Space Telescope has now snapped the first detailed pictures of what some observers are calling Red Spot Jr.
Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said this was the first time scientists had witnessed the birth of one of these huge oval spots, presumably a convective phenomenon like a powerful thunderstorm. The Great Red Spot was already present when observers first looked with telescopes at the planet some 400 years ago.
Though Red Spot Jr. is half the size, the astronomers said it appeared in near-infrared images to be as bright in Jupiter's cloudy atmosphere as its large companion. They suggested that the new storm might rise higher above the main cloud deck than the older spot.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
You know... astronomers lately are nowhere near as creative as their ancestors. The Greeks could look at a set of stars and see a great hunter named Orion with a club in one hand and a shield in the other, with his faithful hunting dog at his side and a great bull, Taurus, charging at him, all the while running from the scorpion who bit his shoulder and turned it red.
Nowadays, we get Jupiter's "Great Red Spot"... then Neptune's "Great Dark Spot" and now Jupiter has "Red Spot, Jr." I guess it could've been worse... "Lesser Red Spot."
:-)
Interesting.
Again, Bush's fault.
They're saying this as if the Great Red hasn't almost always had a companion storm.
You crack me up. :))
all the while running from the scorpion who bit his shoulder and turned it red.
Not sure, but I don't think scorpions bite. Sting you with their stinger, yes, but they don't bite. Of course, anything is possible with these imaginary starry characters.
Global warming.
It appears the flow is from right to left and the smooth flow becomes turbulent at the spot.
That is as the atmosphere flows around a stationary object it becomes clockwise cyclonic and turbulent. Stationary object/gas giant doesn't compute.
The turbbulence is present at the small spot but not as pronounced.i
Yikes!
Slip of the fingers... I meant stung.
I am certain global warming is at the root of this, all because Bush will not sign Kyoto.../sarc
Cool photo! I love looking at photos of Jupiter's storms. Amazing!
You description of Orion and Taurus was great. I have Joseph Seiss' book, "The Gospel in the Stars." Seiss interprets the star signs prophetically, depicting the grand conflict between woman, her child (Christ), and the serpent (satan).
However, your mention of Betelguese, the red star in Orion's right shoulder, being red in coloration due to Scorpio's sting - first I heard of that.
It's just another zit.
I couldn't tell you where I heard that, but it was a long time ago. This is the reason that Orion sets when Scorpio rises and vice versa, so the myth goes. Also Sagittarius has his arrow trained on Scorpio's heart, Antares, in case Scorpio gets any ideas.
That's what we can call it, the Honorable Sen. Bluto Blutarski Memorial Red Spot. ;-D
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