Posted on 6/6/2006, 2:27:35 AM by KevinDavis
Astronomers on Earth will have ringside seats to a face-off between two of the biggest storms in the solar system.
In one corner will be Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a behemoth of a tempest that is twice as large as Earth and whose 350 mph winds have been whirling for hundreds of years.
Its contender will be Oval BA, also known as "Red Jr.," a young six-year storm that is only half Great Red's size but whose winds are just as fierce.
The two are approaching each other now and are expected to have their closest approach on the Fourth of July, according to Amy Simon-Miller, an astronomer at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland who has been monitoring the storms.
"There won't be a head-on collision," Simon-Miller said. "The Great Red Spot is not going to 'eat' Oval BA or anything like that."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
"The Great Red Spot is not going to 'eat' Oval BA or anything like that." - Simon-Miller
Drats!
I wanted to see the Great Red Spot chew on the upstart Oval BA..
Maybe it'll bite its ear off or eat it's children.
That would be worth seeing too.
Wonder how it will pan out.
Yeah, We better put on our goggles to watch this one.
A Perfect Jovian Storm?
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ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE
LOL! It took me a few seconds, but I got it...still and all, it's no where near as gastly as his Charles IV and family
Something may spring 'fully formed and armed' from the head of Zeus...again?
;')
"There won't be a head-on collision," Simon-Miller said. "The Great Red Spot is not going to 'eat' Oval BA or anything like that."Oh, and BTW, the fragments of Comet SL-9 are going to vanish into Jupiter's cloudtops, leaving no traces. ;')
analogous features:
Saturn's Great White Spot
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002416/saturn/index.htm#spot
Uranus' "Great Spot at 37S"
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/uranus/facts.html
Dark Spots on Neptune
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010821.html
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