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Jupiter's Great Red Spot Isn't Dead Yet, Scientist Says

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday December 01 2019, @02:32PM   
from the spot-remover dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Jupiter's Great Red Spot isn't going anywhere anytime soon, according to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

The megastorm has been raging on the gas giant planet for the past few centuries that humans have been able to get a decent look at it, but in recent years it has appeared to be shrinking.

Concern for the imminent fate of what might be the most iconic infinite cyclone in the solar system has ramped up this year. NASA research scientist Glenn Orton told reporters earlier this year that the Great Red Spot is in "very uncharted territory," leading to a number of reports declaring the potential "death" of the spot. 

But Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering Philip Marcus says the spot is in no danger of disappearing.

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Original Submission

• Re:Observation is change (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 02 2019, @04:38AM

  by khallow (3766) on Monday December 02 2019, @04:38AM (#926985) Journal

  Not a storm at all. It is a vortex residuum of the Earth-size planet that fell onto Jupiter in very early historic times. Check the scale.
  
  In western mythology, Zeus is a children-eater. Identity of the planet and the god is culturally established for thousands of years.

  Like pre-telescope people would ever be able to figure that out when Jupiter looks like a bright dot. And since when do Earth-sized features on another planet automatically imply collision by an Earth-sized planet? Do the atmospheric bands of Jupiter come from repeated collisions with Earth-thick donuts?
  
  And while there are some stories that Zeus has eaten his first wife, Metis while she was pregnant, he hasn't eaten children unlike his father, Saturn.

  Parent