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Results tagged “jupiter” from Breaking Orbit

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Experiences Shrinkage

Posted on April 2, 2009 | 1 Comments

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It's kind of like a wool sweater that's been put through the dryer. Except the sweater is a hurricane-like storm as wide as three Earths, and the dryer is Jovian climate change.

jupiter-spot-moon.jpg

—Image courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

From 1996 to 2006, Jupiter's Great Red Spot shrank by about 15 percent, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, who measured the size of the storm based on wind speed and direction.

"We don't fully understand all the sources of energy, or the ways the Red Spot loses energy," study co-author Xylar Asay-Davis told Space.com.

"But these can become slightly imbalanced for a period of time, and this is likely to be what is causing the Red Spot to shrink—less energy is being fed in and more is slowly dissipating away."

Asay-Davis and colleagues think ongoing climate change on Jupiter may be at the root of the energy imbalance.

These changes became especially noticeable between 2005 and 2007, when Jupiter went through a major atmospheric tantrum—the Impressionist cloud cover changed hues and several white oval storms suddenly morphed into brick-red mini versions of the iconic spot.

impressionist-jupiter.jpg

—Image courtesy NASA/JPL

Scientists suggest this upheaval was the result of the south pole cooling down while the equator heated up. Jupiter may have compensated for the changes by forming new storms to help spread around the heat, the team said.

The UC Berkeley researchers are quick to note that the Great Red Spot, which has been raging for at least 340 years, is still a relatively stable storm that continues to crank out winds of up to 300 miles (480 kilometers) an hour.

"We find that the Red Spot has been shrinking but not slowing down," Asay-Davis told SPACE.com.

But NASA researcher Glenn Orton, who wasn't involved in the paper, says it's possible the huge spot may one day disappear.

"It's just a storm that, like many things, has a natural growth and disintegration rate," Orton told CNN.

Asay-Davis and colleagues presented their work last November at a meeting of the American Physical Society, and it was recently submitted for publication in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies.

[Christine's dad, this one's for you.]

Jupiter Moons to Get Some Space Agency Love

Posted on February 18, 2009 | 1 Comments

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It seems fitting that in a year being celebrated worldwide as the 400th anniversary of telescopic astronomy, NASA and ESA have chosen one of Galileo's first loves, Jupiter, as their next top planet.

Cut-away images show the insides of Io, Ganymede, ...

moons1.jpg

In January of 1610 the famed Italian Galileo Galilei pointed a homemade 'scope at the heavens and witnessed something shocking: four "stars" moving in fixed paths around Jupiter.

What he saw were actually the gas giant's four biggest moons, which became known as the Galilean satellites—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

... Europa, and Callisto

moons2.jpg

—Images courtesy NASA/JPL

The tiniest of these, Europa, is only slightly smaller than Earth's moon. In fact, if it weren't for big, fat Jupiter's light drowning them out, people on Earth would be able to see all four of the satellites without the aid of a telescope.

Today NASA and ESA announced that Jupiter and its four famous moons will get priority as science targets for the next flagship mission, following in the footsteps of Cassini (Saturn) and New Horizons (Pluto).

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Conjunction Junction

Posted on December 1, 2008 | 0 Comments

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[What follows is a guest post from my NG colleague Susan Poulton, who was kind enough to fill in for me while I was enjoying a couple days off for my birthday. Thanks, SP!]

And, but, or—they will all get you pretty far, but to witness one of the best sky shows of 2008, you only need to step outside tonight at sunset.

The entire world (except for those with a midnight sun in Antarctica) will be able to view the conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and the crescent moon in their closest pass of a week-long journey.

skymap_460.jpg
—Image courtesy Science@NASA.

And the Winner Is ...

Posted on November 25, 2008 | 1 Comments

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Jamieanne Hassler of Indianapolis! This self-described cupcake addict baked up an amazingly creative version of Jupiter that, well, takes the cake in our Planetology cupcake contest.

It really has been Jupiter's lucky week so far: a new orbiter, an intriguing new study of its core, and now a sweet homage in the form of a decadent chocolate-chili cupcake. Have a look, and send virtual handclaps to Jamieanne for her winning creation:

jupiter-cake.jpg

I'm hungry for some gas giant goodness ...

In Jamieanne's own words: These are Jupiter cupcakes. The cake is chocolate with a kick of cayenne pepper to represent the heat of Jupiter's core [no kidding! Jupiter's core is estimated to be around 55,000 degrees F, or 30,000 degree C], and the center of the cupcake is filled with a soft whipped cream to represent the many layers of clouds on Jupiter. The frosting is a cream cheese/chocolate buttercream swirl in colors similar to Jupiter's. Hanging above the Jupiter cupcakes are the 4 Galilean moons of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto, formed from homemade playdough.

Recipe

*Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients


  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (use more or less to suit your taste)

  • 1 large eggs

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

  • 1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

jupiter-core.jpg

*Whipped cream filling
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients


  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

  • 2 teaspoons sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chill stainless steel bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer in freezer for about 10-20 minutes. Combine all ingredients in steel bowl and use whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill
cupcakes when the cupcakes are completely cool.

*Cream cheese frosting
Makes enough for 1-2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients


  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces

  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continuously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

*Chocolate buttercream
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients


  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter

  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

  • 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk

  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

To make swirled frosting, spoon an amount of each color individually into a piping bag so that the colors are side by side. Squeeze out the frosting over a bowl first until all the colors start coming out, then start swirling!

NASA to Send Snarky High-School Girl to Jupiter

Posted on November 24, 2008 | 0 Comments

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Okay, not really, but I couldn't resist.

In reality, the agency has approved a new spacecraft dubbed Juno that will launch in 2011, making it into an elliptical polar orbit around Jupiter by 2016.

The mission isn't named for the teenage darling of independent film, but for the Roman goddess who was the jealous sister-wife of the god Jupiter [and also the namesake of the movie character—are those orange and white stripes a planetary homage?].

juno-compare.jpg

Striking resemblance?

According to myth, Jupiter was fond of stepping out on his woman, and at some point became particularly attracted to a priestess named Io.

To conceal his tryst, the lusty god spread a veil of clouds over Io, but jealous Juno was not fooled, and she used her goddess vision to penetrate the haze and catch the pair in flagrante delicto.

Along those lines, the Juno spacecraft is designed to peer through the gas giant's murky and tumultuous clouds to study the true nature of the planet, down to its deepest, darkest recesses.

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Live Long and Prosper, Says Star With Two Belts

Posted on October 27, 2008 | 0 Comments

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Just about every house has a room where projects go to die.

The old computer that you were going to refurbish and give to charity, that set of fabric swatches that were meant to be a quilt, your brief and ill-advised fling with oil painting—all the remnants of things that could have been, but were instead swept into a less-traveled area and left to mingle and collect dust.

In our solar system, the junk room is the main asteroid belt, a region between Mars and Jupiter full of pieces that could have been planets.

Thanks to mighty Jupiter's gravity, those pieces of rocky and metallic debris just won't coalesce into planets, leaving us with plenty of fodder for the next doomsday scenario.

Now it turns out that our closest stellar neighbor, a sunlike star called Epsilon Eridani, has not one asteroid belt, but two: one in roughly the same spot as our belt and another about as far from the star as Uranus is from the sun.

epsilon-planets.jpg

—Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Jupiter Drops Its Belt, Gets "Grounded"

Posted on October 2, 2008 | 0 Comments

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The tug-of-war between space-based and ground-based telescopes continues, with today's release of what's being called the sharpest full-planet image of Jupiter taken by an on-the-ground observatory.

jupiter-sharpest.jpg

—Image courtesy ESO

[versus]

jupiter-hubble.jpg

Jupiter, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007
—Image courtesy NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

An international team used the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile to stare right at Jupiter for almost two hours straight.

The resulting infrared image revealed that Jupiter has lowered its belt. The bulk of the haze within the bight band around Jupiter's midsection has migrated south by more than 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) since 2005, the researchers said.

"The change we see in the haze could be related to big changes in cloud patterns associated with last year's planet-wide upheaval, but we need to look at more data to narrow down precisely when the changes occurred," team member Mike Wong said in a press release.

[Incidentally, the global upheaval he's referring to involved massive changes in cloud patterns and other wild weather features observed in 2007.]

In an interview with NatGeo News reporter Richard A. Lovett, lead researcher Franck Marchis, a planetary astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, and the SETI Institute, said of the new image: "We have something comparable to or even better than the Hubble Space Telescope."

Wow. But this isn't the first time researchers using ground-based 'scopes have compared their work to products of the aging but much beloved Hubble.

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Stargazer Alert! Venus and Jupiter in Conjunction This December

Posted on September 25, 2008 | 0 Comments

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planets-lineup.jpg

The planets (plus Pluto) in an approximate size, but not distance, comparison
—Image courtesy NASA/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

The astronomy gods are giving me a pretty nice birthday present this year: a planetary reunion.

On December 1 at 7:36 p.m. ET, Venus and Jupiter will be in conjunction, the astronomical term for "really close together as far as observers on Earth are concerned."

If the skies are clear, stargazers will be able to see the planets shining just two degrees apart, with a partially lit moon sitting three degrees away from Venus.

The same two planets met up once before this year on the morning of February 1. They won't be in conjunction again until May 2011.

Even better from a fun coincidence point of view, for the December reunion the planets will meet in the constellation Sagittarius—my astrological sign.

It's brief and a bit blurry, but here's an animation of what the event should look like:

Of course, being in conjunction has nothing to with the actual distance between the planets.

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Do Planets Make You Sick?

Posted on September 17, 2008 | 0 Comments

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As a professional skeptic, I'd be hard pressed to trust a doctor who thinks my right ankle aches because my ruling planet Jupiter is in retrograde.

jupiter-retro.jpg

Image courtesy NASA

But that's just me, and medical astrology—a fairly common diagnostic tool during medieval times—is still alive and kicking in several parts of the world.

In fact, doctors at a university in Delhi, India, are about to complete a five-year study of local people's medical histories that they say links the positions of the planets to people's health.

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About This Blog

The moon
From dwarf planets to hot Jupiters, join NatGeo News space and tech editor Victoria Jaggard in a global discussion about all things extraterrestrial.


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