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Jupiter's red spot shrinks to smallest size ever seen

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link.

AIb8SzC.jpg

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Jupiter's Great Red Spot — the most powerful storm in the solar system — is at its smallest observed size yet, and scientists aren't sure why.

Recent Hubble Space Telescope images of the storm show that it is now 10,250 miles (16,496 kilometers) across, which is less than half the size of the storm in the late 1800s. At one point, scientists theorized that three Earths could fit inside the Great Red Spot, but today, only the width of one Earth could fit within the raging tempest. You can watch a Great Red Spot video for more views of the diminishing storm.

As the spot diminishes, its shrinkage rate appears to be accelerating. Amateur observations from 2012 show the storm's "waistline" is reducing by 580 miles (933 km) a year, a little less than the driving distance from New York City to Cincinnati.

Nobody knows for sure why the Great Red Spot is getting smaller.

"One possibility is that some unknown activity in the planet's atmosphere may be draining energy and weakening the storm, causing it to shrink," Hubble officials wrote in a statement.

While the storm has been observed since the 1600s, astronomers didn't discover the "downsizing" until 1930. The spot was estimated at 25,500 miles (41,038 km) across in the late 1800s. A century later, the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys of Jupiter in 1979 revealed the spot's longest axis had shrunk to 14,500 miles (23,336 km).

Hubble has tracked the shrinkage since arriving in Earth's orbit in the 1990s. A 1995 image showed the storm was about 13,020 miles (20,953 km) across, but by 2009, that had diminished to 11,130 miles (17,912 km).

"In our new observations, it is apparent that very small eddies are feeding into the storm," Amy Simon, associate director for strategic science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "We hypothesized that these may be responsible for the accelerated change, by altering the internal dynamics and energy of the Great Red Spot."

A large storm on at least one other planet changed or disappeared in recent decades. The Voyager 2 spacecraft also captured images of a "Great Dark Spot" on Neptune during a flyby in 1989. The storm was not visible to Hubble when the telescope examined the planet in 1994.
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A

adj_noun

Member
At one point, scientists theorized that three Earths could fit inside the Great Red Spot, but today, only the width of one Earth could fit within the raging tempest
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It's only as big as one Earth now? That's only barely terrifying to contemplate.
 
T

TheRealTalker

Banned
either

a) Jupiter is using some facial cleaning cream

b) Jupiter is focusing all of the red spot into one small condescend circle before bursting


either way Jupiter needs to get rid of its acne



SCIENCE
 
S

subrock

Member
Maybe that was all swirling around an earthen spire on the planet's surface, and now that has partially collapsed or eroded, causing the eddy to subside.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Jupiter probably started using Cetaphil.

Edit: too late
 
C

Conciliator

Banned
A secret alien civilization lives upon Jupiter and is sapping its energy for resources as its economy grows. Like Earth, they have come to understand that their planet's innate resources will not last ever, but in 2035, it may be too late. Their only hope: To make contact with the only other civilization in the galaxy, and join forces in a desperate attempt to uncover an unexplained, ultra-powerful resource in the center of Mars. But what they find...may make them wish they had never came.

Will Smith, Michael Caine, Emma Stone. Summer 2016. Emma Stone is a sexy alien chick.
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
I didn't know this one had disappeared already:

A large storm on at least one other planet changed or disappeared in recent decades. The Voyager 2 spacecraft also captured images of a "Great Dark Spot" on Neptune during a flyby in 1989. The storm was not visible to Hubble when the telescope examined the planet in 1994.
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stou_s35.jpg
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If a spot that big can disappear entirely in just five years, Jupiter's red spot may be gone soon as well...
 
B

Barbacoatl

Banned
TheRealTalker said:
either

a) Jupiter is using some facial cleaning cream

b) Jupiter is focusing all of the red spot into one small condescend circle before bursting


either way Jupiter needs to get rid of its acne



SCIENCE
Click to expand...
This is what I was thinking. Jupiter just found the cure for eczema and we're still debating the supreme reign of cats over dogs.

Space. We joke because we're terrified.
 
S

Suen

Member
I knew earth could fit in Jupiter the red spot before but not three of them. A storm larger than this world in another planet, that's terrifying.

edit:
fixed, thanks guys
 
Lamel

Lamel

Banned
Suen said:
I knew earth could fit in Jupiter before but not three of them. A storm larger than this world in another planet, that's terrifying.
Click to expand...

1290+ earths can fit in Jupiter.

volume of Earth is 1*10^12 Km^3. Volume of Jupiter is 1.4*10^15 Km^3. 3 orders of magnitude larger
 
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