Jupiter Gets New Red Spot

saskboy writes "The planet Jupiter is growing a new red spot. Jupiter is already well known for its Great Red Spot storm which is visible through modest backyard telescopes, so it will be interesting if this newer spot sticks around and grows. From the article: 'The official name of this storm is Oval BA, but Red Jr. might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color. Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. A similar merger centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.'"

Re:GW

[MillionthMonkey]

I think before we panic we should all stop to realize that this is part of a continuous process of change where red spots are continuously created and destroyed on Jupiter all the time!
Oh well I suppose a spot will disappear next week ho hum no news here.

Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

This is excellent, because the Great Red Spot has become less great and less red over recent years. When I first spotted it through a scope, it was a pretty impressive sight. Lately it has changed to become a less intense colour, leading some observers to give it names like "the Great Salmon Spot" or the "Great Brownish Smudge". It is also shrinking - being half the size it was 100 years ago.

The creation of new spots has been predicted (as part of the rapid "climate change" that has been affecting Jupiter over the past few years) and is all probably cyclical, but I was somehow excited by reading this news.

Atmosphere probe?

[MichaelSmith]

The article doesn't say much about what is causing these huge weather patterns to be so stable on Jupiter, and the reason is that we actually know very little about what goes on underneath the outer layers of cloud.

Our one and only atmosphere probe was a surprising success, but it was not built to last. A different probe, supported by a balloon rather than a parachute, was flown on venus and it worked well.

I think it is time to have another go at a jupiter atmosphere probe. This time try for a hot hydrogen balloon, heated by an RTG. If we don't do the basic research we will never understand the biggest planet in our solar system.

Re:Global Warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm. Real Climate [realclimate.org] says no on Mars. (Real Climate is a website set up by actual climatologists to counter the lies spread by libertarians and republicans in the American media.)

Life on Jupiter?

[BRUTICUS]

I've always wondered why a planet like Jupiter couldn't harvest life. I mean, why couldn't another type of life with other needs arise. Why couldn't liquid hydrogen, helium or ice be a source of energy for another lifeform. Plants on earth don't need oxygen.

Re:Atmosphere probe?

[DerWulf]

This might be a little off-topic but I'd be glad if somebody cleared that up for me:

Mars' gravity: 0.376G (Wikipedia)
Titans' gravity: 0.14G (Wikipedia)

Mars' atmospheric pressure: around 75% of earths
Titans' atmospheric pressure: around 150% of earths

Now, I've always thought that Mars was so cold because the atmosphere was too thin to "hold back the heat". Also, I've been told that Mars atmosphere was thin as it is because Mars gravity was too low to prevent atmosphere to escape into space. Now how come Titan has double the atmospheric pressure than Mars with barely half the gravity? What am I missing?