Starship Asterisk*

Boomer12k wrote:Any bets on IF and WHEN it may disappear?

RocketRon wrote:What is the latest theory on the red color ?

zendae1 wrote:
Is it known whether the storm is warm-cored like a hurricane
or cold -cored like a temperate low? Or a hybrid? Or something totally different?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot#Mechanical_dynamics wrote:
<<There is no definitive theory as to what is causing the formation or colour of the storm that is known as the Great Red Spot. Laboratory studies are examining the effects that cosmic rays or UV Light from the Sun are having on the chemical composition of the clouds of Jupiter. In particular whether the Sun's radiation is reacting with ammonium hydrosulfide in the planet's outer atmosphere to create the deep red colour. Research has shown that the storm produces extreme amounts of heat because it is simultaneously generating gravity and acoustic waves. When these turbulent energy waves collide 800 km above the red spot, they are creating extremely high temperatures in the the planet's upper atmosphere. The effect is described as being like "crashing [..] ocean waves on a beach">>

Chris Peterson wrote:
Nice to see what's possible with a pretty low quality camera. This isn't even one of the primary science instruments (the mission could have gone on fine with no camera at all). The imagery we've received shows the value of putting on a low cost, simple imaging device even if the mission doesn't require it. We are visual animals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JunoCam wrote:
<<Due to telecommunications constraints, Juno will only be able to return about 40 megabytes of camera data during each 11-day orbital period. This downlink average data rate of around 325 bits per second is comparable to the 1000 bits per second of the previous Galileo mission that orbited Jupiter, whose antenna problems that crippled its planned 135,000 bit-per-second communications link. JunoCam's low resolution, rigid mounting and lossy compression, applied before transmission makes it effectively the Juno "dashcam" with a field of view of 58 degrees with four filters (red, green, blue, and a methane band) . Despite Jupiter's intense magnetosphere, the JunoCam is expected to be operational for at least the first eight orbits.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Panoptes wrote:

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<<Argus Panoptes (or Argos) was Juno's servant. Juno's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Jupiter, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree: And set a watcher upon her, great and strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. And the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.

Juno knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Jupiter was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Jupiter had Mercury put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone. To commemorate her faithful watchman, Juno had the eyes of Argus preserved forever, in her mascot the peacock's tail.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashcam wrote:
<<A dash cam may be attached to the interior windscreen or to the top of the dashboard, by suction cup or adhesive-tape mount. Dashcams may provide video evidence in the event of a road accident. Dashcams are widespread in Russia as a guard against police corruption and insurance fraud.>>

reneanajarro@gmail.com wrote:Question:
Could The Great Red Spot be the remnant of a planet or a planetoid collision that is dissolving within the gas layers of the giant planet ...?

montylc2001 wrote:
I've always had the thought that perhaps the color of the GRB and elsewhere in Jupiter's atmosphere was partially due to the millions (billions?) of years of the sulphur and other material constantly spiralling in from Io. Has this ever been considered?

• Io's sulphur goes elsewhere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Source: Seven Wonders of the Gas Giants and Their Moons By Ron Miller[/color][/b]

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<<Jupiter's internal magnetic field is generated by electrical currents in the planet's outer core, which is composed of liquid metallic hydrogen. Volcanic eruptions on Jupiter's moon Io eject large amounts of sulfur dioxide gas into space, forming a large torus around the planet. Jupiter's magnetic field forces the torus to rotate with the same angular velocity and direction as the planet. The torus in turn loads the magnetic field with plasma, in the process stretching it into a pancake-like structure called a magnetodisk. In effect, Jupiter's magnetosphere is shaped by Io's plasma and its own rotation, rather than by the solar wind like Earth's magnetosphere. Strong currents in the magnetosphere generate permanent aurorae around the planet's poles and intense variable radio emissions, which means that Jupiter can be thought of as a very weak radio pulsar. Jupiter's aurorae have been observed in almost all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared, visible, ultraviolet and soft X-rays.

Although overall the shape of Jupiter's magnetosphere resembles that of the Earth's, closer to the planet its structure is very different. Jupiter's volcanically active moon Io is a strong source of plasma in its own right, and loads Jupiter's magnetosphere with as much as 1,000 kg of new material every second. Strong volcanic eruptions on Io emit huge amounts of sulfur dioxide, a major part of which is dissociated into atoms and ionized by the solar ultraviolet radiation, producing ions of sulfur and oxygen: S⁺, O⁺, S₂⁺ and O₂⁺. These ions escape from the satellite's atmosphere and form the Io plasma torus: a thick and relatively cool ring of plasma encircling Jupiter, located near Io's orbit. The plasma temperature within the torus is 10–100 eV (100,000–1,000,000 K), which is much lower than that of the particles in the radiation belts—10 keV (100 million K). The plasma in the torus is forced into co-rotation with Jupiter, meaning both share the same period of rotation. The Io torus fundamentally alters the dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere.>>

montylc2001 wrote:

neufer wrote:

montylc2001 wrote:
I've always had the thought that perhaps the color of the GRB and elsewhere in Jupiter's atmosphere was partially due to the millions (billions?) of years of the sulphur and other material constantly spiralling in from Io. Has this ever been considered?

Io's sulphur goes elsewhere.

Indeed, but I did read somewhere that much of the material DOES spiral into Jupiter.

• I've read that red is pretty ubiquitous in our solar system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon) wrote:
<<Since the Voyager spacecraft flew past Europa in 1979, scientists have worked to understand the composition of the reddish-brown material that coats fractures and other geologically youthful features on Europa's surface. Spectrographic evidence suggests that the dark, reddish streaks and features on Europa's surface may be rich in salts such as magnesium sulfate, deposited by evaporating water that emerged from within. Sulfuric acid hydrate is another possible explanation for the contaminant observed spectroscopically. In either case, because these materials are colorless or white when pure, some other material must also be present to account for the reddish color, and sulfur compounds are suspected.>>

RocketRon wrote:And, is the red spot stationary over a point on the planet, or are the 'clouds' moving faster/slower than the planet is rotating ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Jupiter#Oval_BA wrote:

[img3="These four images of clouds in a portion of Jupiter's southern hemisphere show steps in the consolidation of three "white oval" storms into one over a three-year span of time. They were obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope."]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ble%29.jpg[/img3]

[b][color=#FF0000][size=150]JunoCam view of Oval BA : The Little Red Spot[/size][/color][/b]

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<<Oval BA is a red storm in Jupiter's southern hemisphere similar in form to, though smaller than, the Great Red Spot (it is often affectionately referred to as "Red Spot Jr.", "Red Jr." or "The Little Red Spot"). A feature in the South Temperate Belt, Oval BA was first seen in 2000 after the collision of three small white storms, and has intensified since then.

The formation of the three white oval storms that later merged into Oval BA can be traced to 1939, when the South Temperate Zone was torn by dark features that effectively split the zone into three long sections. Jovian observer Elmer J. Reese labeled the dark sections AB, CD, and EF. The rifts expanded, shrinking the remaining segments of the STZ into the white ovals FA, BC, and DE. Ovals BC and DE merged in 1998, forming Oval BE. Then, in March 2000, BE and FA joined together, forming Oval BA.

Oval BA slowly began to turn red in August 2005. On February 24, 2006, Filipino amateur astronomer Christopher Go discovered the color change, noting that it had reached the same shade as the GRS.

In April 2006, a team of astronomers, believing that Oval BA might converge with the GRS that year, observed the storms through the Hubble Space Telescope. The storms pass each other about every two years, but the passings of 2002 and 2004 did not produce anything exciting. Dr. Amy Simon-Miller, of the Goddard Space Flight Center, predicted the storms would have their closest passing on July 4, 2006. On July 20, the two storms were photographed passing each other by the Gemini Observatory without converging.

Why Oval BA turned red is not understood. According to a 2008 study by Dr. Santiago Pérez-Hoyos of the University of the Basque Country, the most likely mechanism is "an upward and inward diffusion of either a colored compound or a coating vapor that may interact later with high energy solar photons at the upper levels of Oval BA." Some believe that small storms (and their corresponding white spots) on Jupiter turn red when the winds become powerful enough to draw certain gases from deeper within the atmosphere which change color when those gases are exposed to sunlight.

Oval BA is getting stronger according to observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007. The wind speeds have reached 618 km/h; about the same as in the Great Red Spot and far stronger than any of the progenitor storms. As of July 2008, its size is about the diameter of Earth—approximately half the size of the Great Red Spot.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot#Mechanical_dynamics wrote:
<<There is no definitive theory as to what is causing the formation or colour of the storm that is known as the Great Red Spot. Laboratory studies are examining the effects that cosmic rays or UV Light from the Sun are having on the chemical composition of the clouds of Jupiter. In particular whether the Sun's radiation is reacting with ammonium hydrosulfide in the planet's outer atmosphere to create the deep red colour. Research has shown that the storm produces extreme amounts of heat because it is simultaneously generating gravity and acoustic waves. When these turbulent energy waves collide 800 km above the red spot, they are creating extremely high temperatures in the the planet's upper atmosphere. The effect is described as being like "crashing [..] ocean waves on a beach">>