jupiter great red spot shrinks by 2/3

[dragon]

Scientists have noticed something dramatic happening in the Solar System: Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot, the crimson monster storm that once was so large that it could eat three Earths, is mysteriously shrinking at high speed. Now it's only the width of one Earth. Would it disappear in a few decades?

According to the observations by the Hubble Space Telescope made in 1995, 2009 and 2014, the entire process happened in less than three decades. Scientists don't know why this is happening, according to NASA.
The Great Red Spot has been raging in Jupiter's southern hemisphere for hundreds of years—349 according to some estimations. Cassini talked about a permanent spot between 1665 and 1713.

Scientist don't know yet why this is happening or if the giant planet would loose its most striking characteristic. I guess that, at this shrinking rate, we will know in a few decades.

Also, just in case, let's not go to Europa. Maybe this is just a warning.

link

[Borgholio]

Good thing I got my telescope set up recently. Better take some pics before it's gone for good.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It's a big ass storm, it was bound to run out of energy eventually. It'll be sad when it's gone though.

And that last line about Europa cracked me up.

[LadyTevar]

As one commentor pointed out, Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter's southern hemisphere in 1994. Could we be seeing delayed effects of the comet's impact?

[Borgholio]

As one commentor pointed out, Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter's southern hemisphere in 1994. Could we be seeing delayed effects of the comet's impact?

Hard to say. Makes sense that it could, but we know too little about the red spot and how it works to say anything for certain.

[cosmicalstorm]

It's shrinking!

[Guardsman Bass]

That would have sucked for astronomers in that setting. Most of the year you'd have a micro-sun blazing away through the night.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That;s something Clark addressed in the ending to 2010. Earth-based optical astronomy was effectively extinct, but since they already had orbital and lunar telescopes it wasn't such a problem.

[LadyTevar]

I did wonder how Lucifer would affect sleep schedules for Earth beings.

[Broomstick]

Humans have invented things like black out curtains - it's the wild critters sensitive to our current day/night cycle that would suffer the most.

[Tribble]

Well, we don't know if it's going to disappear entirely, if it might stabilise at some point, or even if it might eventually stop it's shrinking and expand again. And even if it disappears, another one might take it's place. There might be some kind of cycle involved spanning hundreds of years. We know very little about it.

[Borgholio]

From what I remember the last time I watched the movie, Lucifer was brighter than the full moon but not nearly bright enough to act like a second sun here on Earth. I don't think it'd affect the day / night cycle much at all.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well, that's the film, in the book it's quite clearly stated that night-time is much rarer now (when Jupiter/Lucifer is on the same side of the sky as the Sun) and that several animal species had gone extinct even before Leonov returned to Earth.

[Borgholio]

Well, that's the film, in the book it's quite clearly stated that night-time is much rarer now (when Jupiter/Lucifer is on the same side of the sky as the Sun) and that several animal species had gone extinct even before Leonov returned to Earth.

I'll have to go back and re-read the book, I honestly don't recall that part. But yeah if Lucifer was supposed to be much brighter than in the movie, I can see how that would cause problems.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'd recommend re-reading the book generally, it's great

[Borgholio]

I'd recommend re-reading the book generally, it's great

One thing I do recall about the book is how it described the Europans observing the spread of Humanity on the other Jovian moons. That would have been a great thing to actually see on screen!

[Zixinus]

Out of curiosity, has anyone seen this in their local news?

Because in terms of scale of an event, this is quite massive.

[Borgholio]

Out of curiosity, has anyone seen this in their local news?

Because in terms of scale of an event, this is quite massive.

Well...only about 1/3 as massive now.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Out of curiosity, has anyone seen this in their local news?

Because in terms of scale of an event, this is quite massive.

Of course not. It isn't something that can be negatively attributed to Obama, the GOP, the EU, UKIP, Putin, the big corporations or anything else. It's just (as far as newsroom staff are concerned) some random thing happening a few billion miles away that no one can explain right now. In other words, not a big story.