‘On Jupiter, a storm has raged for at least 400 years.
We see it as a vast red ellipse in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, and it’s always been called The Great Red Spot. It was already there when the first telescopes were aimed at Jupiter in the 1600s, so no one knows how old it truly is.
But now it has a companion. In 2000, three storms merged to form a new, much bigger one. It’s smaller than the Red Spot but still big enough to easily swallow the Earth.
New features like this are given designations by astronomers to make it easier to refer to them. Everyone is naturally calling this storm "Red Jr.", of course, but the official name is…
… Oval BA.
Someone who observes Jupiter must be a fan of my blog. There’s really no other obvious explanation.’
March 17th, 2006 at 11:09 am
With all those red spots, I think we should rename Jupiter to Pizza Face.
March 17th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
does this have any possible real life connotations?
March 17th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Nah, it’s Io that looks like a pizza. Those cloud bands make Jupiter look more like a lasagna, or maybe a hydrogen-helium stromboli which wasn’t large enough to achieve nuclear fusion.
To adapt Richard Feynman’s phrase, what men are poets who could speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense gaseous lasagna must be silent?
March 17th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Not just a spot.. a planet! Or a planetoid, anyway. Ok, a rock.
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215468/asteroids.htm
“The smallest known asteroid is called 1991 BA and is only 20 feet in diameter.”
If that isn’t glory, I don’t know what is.
March 17th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Oval BA spelled backwards is “ablavo.”
March 17th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I thought the smallest known asteroid was B-612, home to a flower, a few (hopefully extinct) volcanoes and a little prince. . . .
March 17th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Oh, goodie we have some good anagrams:
BBA VOL
ABA VOL
ALB OVA
LAB OVA
BOA VAL
So a book, an egg or a snake? Hmmmm
Perhaps LAVABO where the priest of the god Jupiter washes his hands?
March 17th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Clear, clear evidence for intelligent design.
March 17th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
And I thought the B612 was the best route across the Pennines when the A66 is blocked…
March 17th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Hey, we could start selling the names of Jupiter spots the way they sell the names of stars!
March 17th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I guess a spot’s better than a blemish, right?
March 18th, 2006 at 6:20 am
hithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespot
spothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehithespothehit
March 18th, 2006 at 7:08 am
So, are you saying someone thought your head is like a whirling storm system that has been getting redder and redder?
Perhaps if NASA keeps cutting unmanned science missions that could be an apt analogy. Oval BA could go GRS in time…you never know.
[Of course I'm writing this with a jovial grin on my face.
]
March 18th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Call that a Jovian grin.
March 18th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Kevin Rosero Says:
March 18th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Call that a Jovian grin.
Psst…that was the point.
March 18th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I wonder – would there be any cosmic significance if an object named after you vanishes from the universe?
But more importantly, what does this new storm activity indicate about trends in global warming!