3rd red spot
2008-May-23, Friday 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerJupiter has been behind the sun (and so impossible to photograph) for a while now. It's finally come back around far enough that new photos are available. What's new? Well, yet another red spot.
Astronomers have already seen one of the many white spots evolve into a larger storm system, changing color to red by a process that is not yet fully understood. They think it has something to do with molecules dredged up from deeper inside Jupiter and then being exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Why all the "new" storm activity on Jupiter? More theory: global climate change.
No, not the same kind on Earth, where natural variation has been left behind in favor of new spikes of abrupt change. The idea on Jupiter is that this is part of a natural 60-year cycle (or 100-year cycle, depending on who you ask).
The path of the 3rd storm will take it to the Great Red Spot around August here on Earth. We'll see then if the winds repel each other or if the smaller storm gets absorbed by the larger one.
Astronomers have already seen one of the many white spots evolve into a larger storm system, changing color to red by a process that is not yet fully understood. They think it has something to do with molecules dredged up from deeper inside Jupiter and then being exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Why all the "new" storm activity on Jupiter? More theory: global climate change.
No, not the same kind on Earth, where natural variation has been left behind in favor of new spikes of abrupt change. The idea on Jupiter is that this is part of a natural 60-year cycle (or 100-year cycle, depending on who you ask).
The path of the 3rd storm will take it to the Great Red Spot around August here on Earth. We'll see then if the winds repel each other or if the smaller storm gets absorbed by the larger one.