Mystery of Jupiter's persistent geometric storms may be solved

The space.com link provided says "Significance Like good wine, scientific problems gain significance as they age. Regular patterns of vortices have been studied theoretically and observed in the laboratory since the 19th century, but never before in a planetary atmosphere, with the complicating effects of planetary rotation, spherical geometry, and horizontal convergence and divergence. Instruments on the Juno spacecraft have given us the sizes and speeds of the vortices, but a true understanding requires a numerical model that matches the observations and simulates the long-term stability of the patterns. We provide such a model here, but the work is not done. We will make further progress as Juno continues its observations of this fascinating phenomenon.", https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/01/2008440117

Some computer geeks and math geeks will continue to have fun here as the work continues :)
 
Sep 10, 2020
1
0
10
Visit site
gas structures as big as planets, extremely compressed tell the point they have enough matter to build their own gravity well until self sustaining. By dropping compressed gas down the center, making the solar systems largest toilet flush.
 
Sep 10, 2020
1
0
10
Visit site
Well I'm not in any way possible a scientist, astrophysicist. From a completely non science view. The description and photo kind of looks like (using imagination) a set of gears from a clock or gearbox each one dependent on the turning of one of it's neighbors rotation somehow. Just a random thought.
 
Dec 24, 2020
11
4
15
Visit site
I suspect that solids may play a role by interfering with fluid flow of the atmosphere. A few hundred kilometers below cloud tops, higher pressures should give rise to ammonium ice, water ice, solid ammonium hydrogen sulfide and probably some other solid substances. These solids ( dust, sand, mushballs, floating islands? ) are part of cycles of phase changes in the atmosphere. The von Karmann interference patterns exhibited in the flow patterns of cloud tops are a clue that the fluid flow is subject to interference by solids below, more than just other directions of gas flow.
 

Latest posts