| Submit your comments on this article | |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| Zeus' acne gets worse | |
| 2006-10-12 | |
| WASHINGTON - Just a little more than a year ago, the small spot on Jupiter was a pale white; now it matches the reddish hue of its bigger sibling, the Great Red Spot, and boasts 400 mph winds, according to new data from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's Bush's fault for not signing Kyoto! Both spots are actually fierce storms in Jupiter's atmosphere. While the red spot — at three times the size of Earth — is much more noticeable, strange things are happening to the smaller spot. Scientists aren't quite sure what's happening to the smaller storm, nicknamed the Little Red Spot or Red Spot Jr. but officially called "Oval BA." It probably gained strength as it shrunk slightly, the same way spinning ice skaters go faster when they move their arms closer, said NASA planetary scientist Amy Simon-Miller. Her findings from the Hubble data were published in the astronomical journal Icarus. As the storm has grown stronger it's probably picked up red material from lower in the Jupiter atmosphere, most likely some form of sulfur which turns red as part of a chemical reaction, she said. The color change took astronomers by surprise. And now they figure more surprises are in store as the solar system's largest planet goes into hiding from Earth's prying eyes until January, moving behind the sun. "We found that Jupiter tends to do interesting things behind the sun and we can't see it," Simon-Miller said.
| |
| Posted by:Korora |
| #13 phil_b, ludicrous, eh? You mean by ludicrous that it clashes with your theoretical considerations. Forget myths, how about contemporary eyewitness accounts without a hint of deification or mythification and how about physical and other evidence? I wonder if you really did read Velikovsky's works or rather some kind of sceptical 2nd hand synopsis. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-10-12 16:55 |
| #12 Great. I suppose they'll say Bush is responsible for universal warming and climate change now. Nah, baby steps first. It'll start with Interplanetary Warming and then expand. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-10-12 15:41 |
| #11 Great. I suppose they'll say Bush is responsible for universal warming and climate change now. |
| Posted by: Dar 2006-10-12 15:21 |
| #10 Having chunks of infalling comet dump huge amounts of heat into your atmosphere tends to lead to "strange things", y'know. |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-10-12 15:00 |
| #9 In case anyone is wondering (cares?) 2X4 & Bobby are alluding to Velikovsky's (ludicrous) theory that Venus was expelled by Jupiter in historical times. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-10-12 08:27 |
| #8 A final item for Bobby's list: Be sure to call your readers "mouthbreathers", "Neanderthals" or "Philistines" in order to get their attention and remind them of their place in the universal order relative to you. Did poor Mr. Aristides from the area of London (so beautifully pegged by FOTSGreg last night) miss even a single trick when he popped by yesterday? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-10-12 06:40 |
| #7 From a poster at a Google reference here concerning Jupiter planet-sized expulsions are some rules that might also apply to politics, as well as science: Written by another easily dismissable source. Rules for skeptical essays: Talk down to the audience. The writer is always right. It is OK to dismiss any source of information when you are a skeptic, for example, someone who uses historical information uses "myths." It is OK to use the sources that you have dismissed to prove your side of the case, for example, histories allegedly show something different from the claim that you are working to dismiss. As a skeptic you never have to withdraw any claim that you make no matter how soundly it has been disproven. The other side has to withdraw all claims if you find anything that seems to say otherwise, no matter how much of its material is proven beyond doubt. If the other side calls you names, they are jerks. If you call the other side names, you are a hero. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-10-12 06:13 |
| #6 Interesting....some of the more astute astronomy buffs on the 'burg might know the details, but hasn't the Great Red Spot grown and shrunk and become paler at certain times since its discovery by Galileo? Any correlation with warm and cool periods here on Terra? Could this new spot be an indication that warming is occuring throughout the solar system and not just here? If so, what are the implications for the concept of anthropogenic global warming, taken in aggregate with other data like retreating glaciers on Mars and some of the outer planets' moons? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-10-12 06:06 |
| #5 Nope, just a shot in the ass. |
| Posted by: Flerong Jaiting4297 2006-10-12 05:35 |
| #4 Aren't there special ointments for this sort of stuff? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-12 03:45 |
| #3 Glaving Whatle1651, you've forgotten to add the /sarc tag. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-10-12 00:56 |
| #2 Jupiter is in a preparation phase for another expulsion. The one related to Big Red Spot happened about 3600 years ago. Hopefully, it won't be as dramatic as then. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-10-12 00:54 |
| #1 This could happen on Earth unless we all switch to ethanol. |
| Posted by: Glaving Whatle1651 2006-10-12 00:42 |