Re: A Six Year Old Has A Question For Prof. Mihos

On Feb 5, 10:55 pm, Archie Leach <le...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chris Mihos <cmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 5, 10:44 am, "the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx"
<the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 5, 9:17 am, Chris Mihos <cmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Feb 5, 9:03 am, "the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx"

<the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 5, 8:55 am, Chris Mihos <cmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Feb 5, 8:13 am, "the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx"

<the_andrew_sm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 5, 7:24 am, Chris Mihos <cmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Feb 5, 12:00 am, Dan Bretta <nuda...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My kid wants to know what that "Big Gashole" is on Neptune.

Please advise.

Dan

Uh, are you talking about the Dark Spot? That's a storm system -- kind
of like a giant, long-lived hurricane. Akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot

By long-lived, do you mean weeks, months, years, decades?

a.

Depends on the system -- some for years, some for centuries. Jupiter's
Red Spot has been there for at least 400 years (ie for as long as
astronomers have been able to see it with telescopes). The Dark Spot
on Neptune observed by Voyager in 1989 was gone when Hubble took
images of the planet in 1994, but a new dark spot had appeared. Take a
look here:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960508.html-Hidequotedtext-

Uh, we creationists know a freakin' out of focus Pepsi logo when we
see it.

The caption says, "Winds near the spot were measured up to 1500 miles
per hour...".   Were these mechanically measured or a visual
approximation?  Either way, that's kinda breezy.

not mechanically measured. but you can see features in the clouds
moving, and we know how big they are physically, so it's pretty
straightforward to do v=d/t.

Are these actual colors?http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/jupiter1_vgr.gif

yeah actually those are. good question, though, because often
astronomical images are shown in false color -- either to make faint
features stand out better, or because the images are taken in
wavelengths of light that are invisible to the eye and hence have no
"color" the way we typically think of it. but those are pretty
accurate visual colors in that image.

If that were Earth, I would say it's a dusty dry place.

Is that accurate?

a.

Not so much -- it's not a surface that you are seeing. What you are
seeing are cloud tops -- Jupiter is mostly made of gas, with complex
hydrocarbons giving the atmospheric color. In fact there is no
"surface" to Jupiter the way we think of on the Earth or Mars. The gas
clouds just get denser and denser as you go deeper inside Jupiter. At
some point you will reach a rocky/icy core, but by that time the
atmospheric density/pressure is so huge that the atmosphere isnt
really behaving like a gas anymore.

So can Jupiter be considered a "failed star" or is that way off base?

It's not remotely large enough to be a failed star.

Zapping it, a la 2010 Odyssey 2, to create a second sun wouldn't work;
there's not enough hydrogen mass there.
.

Relevant Pages

  • New Hubble, Keck images show turbulent Jupiter (Forwarded)
    ... Keck images show turbulent Jupiter ... The images are available on NASA's HubbleSite NewsCenter, ... red of a large oval near the Great Red Spot, earning it the moniker Red Spot ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • New Hubble, Keck images show turbulent Jupiter (Forwarded)
    ... Keck images show turbulent Jupiter ... The images are available on NASA's HubbleSite NewsCenter, ... Great Red Spot just over a year ago to one that is incredibly turbulent at ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Sharpening Up Jupiter
    ... Sharpening Up Jupiter ... Being able to correct wide field images for atmospheric distortions ... of Jupiter prove the value of the advanced technology used by MAD, ... into the upper atmosphere and spread around the world. ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: A Six Year Old Has A Question For Prof. Mihos
    ... Akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot ... images of the planet in 1994, but a new dark spot had appeared. ... "surface" to Jupiter the way we think of on the Earth or Mars. ... atmospheric density/pressure is so huge that the atmosphere isnt ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: A Six Year Old Has A Question For Prof. Mihos
    ... Akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot ... images of the planet in 1994, but a new dark spot had appeared. ... "surface" to Jupiter the way we think of on the Earth or Mars. ... atmospheric density/pressure is so huge that the atmosphere isnt ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)