New Red Spot Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/02....htm?list771283

[RedSky]

Uh Oh! Must be all those accumulating Monoliths are beginning to have their affect. Just remember the warning: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA, ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE".

Here's what it'll look like by "2010"

[Decepticon]

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Yeah -- but in that case, who's down there painting them all red? Disgruntled natives?

[TritonAntares]

Didn't mention this so far...


Does anyone know when both spots will reach the same longitude?

I hope this event will happen when NEW HORIZONS passes Jupiter next year...

Even if it's unlikely (due to their different latitudes), there is still the possibility of a merger of both spots...

Bye.

[dilo]

Veeery interesting, I wonder if Hubble or Keck AO didn't take some recent image of this baby...

[helvick]

Didn't mention this so far...
Does anyone know when both spots will reach the same longitude?
I hope this event will happen when NEW HORIZONS passes Jupiter next year...
Even if it's unlikely (due to their different latitudes), there is still the possibility of a merger of both spots...

That would be pretty interesting.
From what I can see Red Jr\Not So Great Red Spot appears to me to completely span (and disrupt) the South Temperate Zone almost extending into the South Tropical Zone and- at least according to the definitions on this observing page which explains the zone\band naming convention.
Using Dynamics of Jupiter's Atmosphere Ingersol et al 2004 as a source for the relative velocities of the various zones\bands.
My reading of the velocity\latitude chart in Fig 6.2 is that the GRS has an average eastward velocity of somewhere around -50 m/sec. This new storm should have a net eastward velocity somehwere in the region of 10-20m/sec. That difference is close to 250km/h
Eyeballing the two storms they _seem_ to me to be about 70 degrees apart - that's about 87,000km.
If all of the above is reasonable then they should coincide in around 14 days from the time the picture was
taken (Feb 27th) which would be March 13th.

Even if the above is grossly incorrect then I think that the differences in velocity of the two zones does mean that they will "coincide" pretty soon, and obviouly do so a number of times before NH arrives.

[stevesliva]

It's interesting to read the the Great Red Spot is apparently less great and less red in recent decades. Could this be the end for the larger storm?

The appearance of two big red storms also makes me curious as to whether there are any gaps in the observational record that make the common "300 year old storm" assertion a stretch.

[Decepticon]

I can't wait to see Kecks or Hubbles views.

[ljk4-1]

Pioneer 10 saw a similar smaller red spot during its historic flyby
in 1973.

Here is an image of it from the online NASA Pioneer Odyssey book:

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/p116b.jpg

Was this one seen from Earth as well at the time? I wonder what
the frequency of such storms are on Jupiter?

[Decepticon]

If I remember right that was in the northern hemisphere.

[Toma B]

Only image of this "new Red Spot" that I have seen is dated February 27th...
Are there any new images from any telescope?

[ljk4-1]

B)-->

Only image of this "new Red Spot" that I have seen is dated February 27th...
Are there any new images from any telescope?
[/quote]

The Jupiter section of ALPO may be useful:

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/jup.html

--------------------

"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

[SigurRosFan]

A new animation ...

On March 12th, Mike Salway of Australia made this 90-minute movie using a 10-inch telescope and a CCD video camera:

[ljk4-1]

Photo in the News: Jupiter Spawns a New Red Spot

March 7, 2006—Look out, Great Red Spot. A brash young contender may be aiming for your title of Solar System's Most Powerful Storm.

NASA announced Friday that a new red spot has been born on Jupiter, as seen in a February 27 photograph (at top) by an amateur astronomer.

The new, formerly white spot—actually a storm named Oval BA—has been swirling since at least 2000 but acquired the familiar blushing tint of its centuries-old cousin only a few weeks ago. Nicknamed "Red, Jr.," Oval BA formed as three tempests gradually combined into a single superstorm, as seen in the bottom set of images.

So why are the storms red? No one really knows, but some scientists suggest that these miles-high vortices suck up material from lower altitudes. Once exposed to the sun's rays, the theory goes, the material reddens.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...07_jupiter.html