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APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:06 am
by APOD Robot
Image Close-up of The Great Red Spot

Explanation: On July 11, the Juno spacecraft once again swung near to Jupiter's turbulent cloud tops in its looping 53 day orbit around the Solar System's ruling gas giant. About 11 minutes after perijove 7, its closest approach on this orbit, it passed directly above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. During the much anticipated fly over, it captured this close-up image data from a distance of less than 10,000 kilometers. The raw JunoCam data was subsequently processed by citizen scientists. Very long-lived but found to be shrinking, the Solar System's largest storm system was measure to be 16,350 kilometers wide on April 15. That's about 1.3 times the diameter of planet Earth.

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Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:05 am
by Boomer12k
Any bets on IF and WHEN it may disappear?

This is such a cool shot....like looking out the Bay Window...

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Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:22 am
by Jim Leff
Boomer12k wrote:Any bets on IF and WHEN it may disappear?
I asked that here in 2014 and was told 40 years. So....37?

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 16#p226116

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:15 am
by RocketRon
What is the latest theory on the red color ?

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

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:27 am
by Ann
RocketRon wrote:What is the latest theory on the red color ?
Don't know, but the color is most intense at the center of the Great Red Spot, at least in today's APOD.
Comparison between Jupiter in the 1970s and Jupiter some 30-40 years later.
The picture at left was taken by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft in the 1970s.
The Great Red Spot is shrinking, all right. Just look at how huge it was in the 1970s, when it was photographed by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Note how intensely red the "border" of the spot was, too.

There is a short but nice Jupiter rotation video here.

Ann

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:41 am
by De58te
Good news and bad news. Really great to see images of the GRS up close. Darn it all that it is shrinking! I guess I can no longer say that at least two Earths can fit inside the GRS. I can remember an essay from Issac Asimov back in the sixties or seventies where he said that three Earths can fit into the Great Red Spot. Gosh, that was really a Great 'Big' Red Spot back then.

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 1:19 pm
by Chris Peterson
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.

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 2:32 pm
by Fred the Cat
As to why the red spot is red and why it’s other colors appear so vibrantly makes me hope I’ll be around for future missions. :thumb_up:

In the meantime, I’ll have to be content with swirling imaginations. :wink:

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:54 pm
by zendae1
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?

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:54 pm
by neufer
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?
It is a warm core anti-cyclone like the top of a hurricane.

However, the warm core heat source may be 'crashing waves'
(rather than condensation as in a hurricane):
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">>

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:26 pm
by Rothkko
Júpiter es estable... a escala humana. Y... ¿a escala planetaria? ¿se descarta que un proceso interno del gigante gaseoso pudiera afectarnos, directa o indirectamente?

Collins Translator:
Jupiter is stable... a human scale. And... would a planetary scale? be ruled out that an internal process of the gas giant could affect you, directly or indirectly?

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:51 pm
by neufer
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:

<<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.>>

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:40 pm
by reneanajarro@gmail.com
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 ...?

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:53 pm
by Chris Peterson
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 ...?
No. It's just a storm system. Other than being the largest and most stable (those two things probably being related), it's not substantively different from other storm systems we have observed forming on Jupiter.

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 11:08 pm
by montylc2001
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?

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 1:04 am
by Boomer12k
Maybe it is "Jovian Climate Change" making it shrink?

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Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 1:07 am
by Boomer12k
Hurricanes on Earth dissipate their energy over land, etc.... Maybe the Red Spot is dissipating its energy into the surrounding clouds, and cloud layers beneath it?

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Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:14 am
by neufer
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: <<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.>>

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:24 am
by montylc2001
Indeed, but I did read somewhere that much of the material DOES spiral into Jupiter.

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:44 pm
by neufer
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.>>

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:15 pm
by NGC3314
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 ?
Jupiter's rotation rate, like the Sun's. has multiple values depending on which part of the non-solid planet is referenced. Whichever one uses for Jupiter (low-latitude, high-latitude, or the core rotation inferred from its magnetic field), the Great Red Spot wanders erratically in longitude and has lapped around the planet multiple times while we've been able to observe it. There is evidence that the rate of movement is connected to large-scale changes in the adjacent cloud belts.

Close-up of The Little Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:49 am
by neufer
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]
<<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.>>

Re: APOD: Close-up of The Great Red Spot (2017 Jul 15)

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 4:31 pm
by zendae1
It is a warm core anti-cyclone like the top of a hurricane.

However, the warm core heat source may be 'crashing waves'
(rather than condensation as in a hurricane):
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">>
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TY neufer. Yes, there certainly is the appearance of crashing waves!