Comments on: Jupiter’s got acne!

By: Jupiter’s Red Spot chews up and spits out a storm | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:15:08 +0000

[…] the first panel you can see the smaller storm on the left (this is the same storm we saw in May, when Jupiter suddenly got acne). In the middle panel, taken about six weeks later, it just […]

By: Geomancer

Geomancer — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:07:19 +0000

Thanks, andy!

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:09:56 +0000

Oh come on, we all know the increased storm activity is due to all greenhouse gases the Jovian people are polluting their atmosphere with. (Well, somebody had to say it. )

By: AlexBenjM

AlexBenjM — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:05:04 +0000

I just had a thought, have anybody done any modelling or research on what would happen to Jupiter in the distant future as it settles down to an equilibrium? I seem to remember somebody predicting that assuming nothing else significantly disturbs it in the distant future, Jupiter’ll lose all traces of colors and become a bluish color as it reaches a chemical and thermal equilibrium.

Eventually Jupiter’s energy sources will run out and the sun will go nova, when that occurs, will it be enough to strip Jupiter of all of its atmosphere or will it just sail through and settle down to a quiet state?

By: AlexBenjM

AlexBenjM — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:58:55 +0000

Dorfl, you’re pretty close, the exact expression is angular momentum. Jupiter’s got so much of it that any tidal friction from its many tiny moons and the distant sun is probably close to negligible. Over extremely long time spans, Jupiter will slow down a little bit but I wonder if we would even notice any difference if we were still around.

If there’s no friction or any energy interactions, Jupiter will rotate forever. Because it’s got angular momentum doesn’t necessarily mean it will eventually slow down like tops on Earth where there’s plenty of friction.

By: NoAstronomer

NoAstronomer — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:27:45 +0000

This picture is APOD for May 22nd. Acccording to their description:

‘If the motion continues, the new spot will encounter the much larger storm system in August’

The much larger storm system being the Great Red Spot. Allright!

By: Dorfl

Dorfl — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:14:01 +0000

Question about this: Jupiter spins fast and is a lot larger than earth.

Any evidence Jupiter is slowing down? Earth’s rotation is slowing down (Because of the moons/tidal waves, I think, please enlighten me if wrong). Jupiter obviously has a lot more rotational momentum (not sure whether that’s the same expression in English as in my native language) but still, shouldn’t the big guy slow down over time?