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Phys.org takes on Jupiter's Big Red Spot:
The largest and most powerful hurricanes ever recorded on Earth spanned over 1,000 miles across with winds gusting up to around 200 mph. That's wide enough to stretch across nearly all U.S. states east of Texas. But even that kind of storm is dwarfed by the Great Red Spot, a gigantic storm in Jupiter. There, gigantic means twice as wide as Earth.
With tumultuous winds peaking at about 400 mph, the Great Red Spot has been swirling wildly over Jupiter's skies for the past 150 years—maybe even much longer than that. While people saw a big spot in Jupiter as early as they started stargazing through telescopes in the 1600s, it is still unclear whether they were looking at a different storm. Today, scientists know the Great Red Spot is there and it's been there for a while, but they still struggle to learn what causes its swirl of reddish hues.
Understanding the Great Red Spot is not easy, and it's mostly Jupiter's fault. A planet a thousand times as big as Earth, Jupiter consists mostly of gas. A liquid ocean of hydrogen surrounds its core, and the atmosphere consists mostly of hydrogen and helium. That translates into no solid ground like we have on Earth to weaken storms. Also, Jupiter's clouds obstruct clear observations of its lower atmosphere. While some studies of Jupiter have investigated areas in its lower atmosphere, orbiting probes and telescopes studying the Great Red Spot can only see clouds scattered high in the atmosphere.
Amy Simon, an expert in planetary atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said learning more about Jupiter and its Great Red Spot could help scientists understand Earth's weather system better. Jupiter's weather functions under the same physics as Earth, she said, just millions of miles farther from the sun. Simon also said Jupiter studies could improve our understandings of worlds beyond our solar system. "If you just look at reflected light from an extrasolar planet, you're not going to be able to tell what it's made of," Simon said. "Looking at as many possible different cases in our own solar system could enable us to then apply that knowledge to extrasolar planets."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2015, @03:21PM
Well, yes, this is technically true in the sense that there aren't different physical laws being invoked. However, a physicist would say that the physics is entirely different in the sense that the driving forces are much different at Jupiter than on Earth. The Earth has a thin atmosphere surrounding a large solid body while Jupiter has a very thick atmosphere surrounding (maybe) a small solid body. The fluid dynamics is very different. For instance, the convective cells are much different in a thin fluid vs a very thick fluid. The Jupiter atmosphere is gaseous, but much more dense due to gravity. The pathways by which energy is deposited into the atmosphere is very very different.
There are many many reasons why it is worthwhile to study the Red Spot and the dynamics of the Jovian atmosphere, but to say that we will be able to understand our atmosphere as a result doesn't hold much water for me as an argument. Particularly since we have thousands of instruments monitoring our atmosphere, both in situ and from above.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Sunday August 09 2015, @04:34PM
Whilst I wouldn't be surprised at some study of Jupiter sparking a new way of thinking about atmospheric dynamics that has implications for terrestrial weather, I interpreted it as the obligatory expression of hope for the realization of hypothetical utility formally required by all government-funded researchers making pubic statements. It's something that nobody gives much weight to and often simply doesn't believe at all, but that you'll get crucified for if you leave it out -- such as a President and "...and may God bless these United States of America" at the end of a speech.
The people actually doing the research are doing it because it's a freakin' immortal hurricane twice the size of the Earth, and how cool is that!? They don't and shouldn't need any more justification for dedicating their lives to it than that -- and we should be more than happy to support them in the endeavor for the exact same reason.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @01:52PM
while Jupiter has a very thick atmosphere surrounding (maybe) a small solid body
My understanding is that current theories say that Jupiter is essentially a liquid center (specifically liquid hydrogen). See Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (standard caveats of anybody can edit it, etc).
I only say because I sensed something of a question in your posting.