Hubble images detail the birth of oval BA in 1997-2000. credit: NASA
Posted on 03/03/2006 1:37:18 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Backyard astronomers, grab your telescopes. Jupiter is growing a new red spot.
The official name of the new storm is "Oval BA," but "Red Jr." might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color.
Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. Using Hubble and other telescopes, astronomers watched with great interest. A similar merger that happened centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.
Oval BA has been changing colors in recent months. It was white in November 2005, slowly turned brown in December and then red a few weeks ago.
Why red?
Curiously, no one knows precisely why the Great Red Spot itself is red. A favorite idea is that the storm dredges material from deep beneath Jupiter's cloudtops and lifts it to high altitudes where solar ultraviolet radiation--via some unknown chemical reaction—produces the familiar brick color.
"The Great Red Spot is the most powerful storm on Jupiter, indeed, in the whole solar system," said Glenn Orton, an astronomer at JPL who specializes in studies of storms on Jupiter and other giant planets.
“The top of the storm rises 8 km above surrounding clouds. It takes a powerful storm to lift material so high,” Orton said.
Oval BA may have strengthened enough to do the same. Like the Great Red Spot, Red Jr. may be lifting material above the clouds where solar ultraviolet rays turn "chromophores" (color-changing compounds) red. If so, the deepening red is a sign that the storm is intensifying.
"Some of Jupiter's white ovals have appeared slightly reddish before, for example in late 1999, but not often and not for long," says John Rogers, author of the book "Jupiter: The Giant Planet," which recounts telescopic observations of Jupiter over the last 100 years.
"It will indeed be interesting to see if Oval BA becomes permanently red," Rogers said.
Hubble images detail the birth of oval BA in 1997-2000. credit: NASA
Bush's fault.
Global Warming?
Oval BA...
Now THERE'S a name!
A giant zit! By Jove!
Uranus joke preemption.
Solar system warming. Get with the program... LOL
Does FEMA know?
It's just a pimple, no big deal, I get them too.
LOL!
Better see a doctor about that. Sores that are left untreated...
It's a Zit !!
But how will FEMA respond to this storm!
What about the brown spots on Uranus?
I wonder how many monoliths are in the spot.
So does my back, but you don't see me posting a thread about it.
Okay, that does it. I've hit my quota of quality posts for the week. See ya.
Owl_Eagle(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
From "The Big Book of Bill Clinton's STD's"
12. Herpes simplex 2, oral.
You are slipping, Owl!
We know so much, yet so little.
Dude!! I'm so happy to live in such interesting astronomical times!!!
The Enterprise has been dispatched to search for Klingons..
THIS ADMINSITRATION IS DESTROYING OUR GALAXY!
Did someone forget to hit the red-eye reduction on their digital camera?
Yes! In fact, that is
a going theory among
the tin foil space types!
The whole theory is
Jupiter is really a
brown dwarf star, and
"Illuminati"
types controlling NASA dropped
the Galileo
through Jupiter's clouds
knowing its nuke battery
would implode and start
a chain reaction
that would IGNITE Jupiter
and cause a NEW STAR
to glow in our sky,
and the new star would get called,
of course, LUCIFER!
Did NASA Accidentally “Nuke” Jupiter?
Perhaps he means "the most powerful storm . . . " among planets. Solar storms are as large as Jupiter itself and eject material past the Earth.
"The Great Red Spot is the most powerful storm on Jupiter..."
I'm sure it's headed our way, then. Better strengthen the levees.
May not be such a bad thing. Should make Mars warm up a litle.
Uranus joke preemption.
Hey man. Ju leave my piter outta dis. Ju da one wi' da red spot on ju piter.
That should have been the caption!
Damn, you beat me to it
Real astronomers
have noticed most star systems
are not single stars
like our Sun, so talk
about Jupiter being
either a "failed" star
or something that might
flare into a "real" brown dwarf
isn't all tin foil . . .
Global Warming?
LOL!!
Boy, a guy's got to get in EARLY on these threads to be the first one to post "Bush's fault" and "Global warming".
ping
is it accurate to call a standing atmospheric wave "a storm"?
oh, WELL played, sir!
thanks for the ping
Red Spot Jr.
by Christopher Go
http://www.redspotjr.com/
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