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posted by martyb on Thursday July 28 2016, @09:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the hot-spot-twice-as-large-as-Earth dept.

Astronomers have proposed that Jupiter's Great Red Spot is heating the upper atmosphere of the planet by hundreds of degrees:

Scientists may have found their answer to why temperatures in Jupiter's upper atmosphere are similar to those on Earth, even though the planet lies five times further away from the sun. Using an infrared telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, observers found that above the Great Red Spot (GRS) the upper atmosphere is hundreds of degrees hotter than other observable parts of the planet.

"We could see almost immediately that our maximum temperatures at high altitudes were above the Great Red Spot far below - a weird coincidence or a major clue?" Boston University research scientist James O'Donoghue said. The study was described in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/nature18940]. Through a process of elimination, scientists worked out that the hot spot must be being heated via the storm below. The exact process for such heat transfer is unknown, but experts have put forward that acoustic or gravity waves from below could be raising the temperature.

As National Geographic puts it, the Great Red Spot is churning out air "hotter than lava" (≥ 1300°C).


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday July 28 2016, @11:24PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 28 2016, @11:24PM (#381368) Journal
    I agree. I think convection is ruled out because the top of the Red Spot would be visibly bright when viewed from the night side, if it was that hot. We had several spacecraft that could see that. I gather they're speaking of a low density region, so even an inefficient transfer of energy from some weird secondary dynamic of the Red Spot is sufficient.
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