Unlocking the Secrets of Jupiter's Giant Red Spot, page 1

www.dailygalaxy.com...

Quote from source:
New thermal images from powerful ground-based telescopes show swirls of warmer air and cooler regions never seen before within Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which has persisted for as long as 200 to 350 years, based on early telescopic observations, enabling scientists to make the first detailed interior weather map of the giant storm system.


The observations reveal that the reddest color of the Great Red Spot corresponds to a warm core within the otherwise cold storm system, and images show dark lanes at the edge of the storm where gases are descending into the deeper regions of the planet. These types of data, detailed in a paper appearing in the journal Icarus, give scientists a sense of the circulation patterns within the solar system's best-known storm system.

"This is our first detailed look inside the biggest storm of the solar system," said Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who was one of the authors of the paper. "We once thought the Great Red Spot was a plain old oval without much structure, but these new results show that it is, in fact, extremely complicated."

Sky gazers have been observing the Great Red Spot in one form or another for hundreds of years, with continuous observations of its current shape dating back to the 19th century. The spot, which is a cold region averaging about 110 Kelvin (minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit) is so wide about three Earths could fit inside its boundaries.

Jupiter's atmosphere has a zig-zag pattern of twelve jet streams which make up its signature pastel-toned bands. Earth, by comparison, has only two jet streams. The Great Red Spot is sandwiched between two of these jets streams, forcing the winds that power those perimeter winds to deflect around the spot.

Spacecraft observations of the way bands of high winds scream past the Red Spot show how the spot -- inaccurately described as a storm -- is actually far calmer at its center than other parts of the Jovian atmosphere. The winds at the center are just 9 or 10 miles per hour, whereas around the perimeter they exceed 200 miles per hour.

I saw this yesterday and noticed that no one posted so I thought I would.

Interesting news indeed. I am happy to see we are still taking time out to study our own planets then just ones in other star systems.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

(bbcode)

[edit on Wed Mar 17 2010 by Jbird]

reply to post by predator0187

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also take a look at this pic,, look familiar

news.sky.com...

reply to post by spikey

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I was thinking the exact same thing when I read that.

So......

What are you waiting for NASA? DO IT!

reply to post by spikey

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I agree completely it would be a nice spot for them to go into and not have to worry about high powered winds. I think we should have sent probes to jupiter to go into the atmosphere a long time ago, Maybe just my opinion.

Pred...

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