What Did Scientists Discover on Jupiter?
Jupiter is a massive, terrifying planet and, despite being studied for centuries and even visited by nine space probes in the last 50 years, the Undisputed King of the solar system has managed to keep some things hidden from us until now, from planetary cannibalism to the giant spots you’ve never seen before.
We’re going to uncover all of Jupiter’s dark secrets.
Jupiter’s Storm
Okay, you’ve most definitely heard of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
You know the gigantic storm that’s been raging for hundreds of years.
Yeah, It’s freakishly big, like wider than Earth kind of big.
If Earth had a storm like that rampaging on its surface, well, there would be no more Earth as you know it.
But what you might not have heard of is that there’s a new massive storm in town.
The Great Cold Spot
It’s called the Great cold spot, and this one is weird.
For one.
It’s almost as large as the Great Red Spot.
It’s also the coldest place in Jupiter’s clouds, about 200 degrees Celsius cooler than its surroundings, which is how it got its name.
So how did we miss this gargantuan hurricane?
Well, I think we’ve just been mesmerized by the swirling clouds of the gas giant and didn’t look closely enough at Jupiter’s poles, and that’s exactly where the great cold spot has been hiding.
But that’s just what.
I think scientists have a cooler explanation.
Jupiter’s auroras
The real reason why it’s not easy to observe the great cold spot is because it’s hiding behind Jupiter’s powerful auroras.
Yeah, the same kind of phenomenon as Earth’s Northern Lights, only many, many times more powerful.
On top of that, unlike the Great Red Spot, which is not eager to change much, the great cold spot is volatile.
It’s constantly growing, bigger and smaller and bigger, changing its shape in a matter of weeks, even days.
Try to keep up with that.
And scientists still don’t fully understand how it formed.
I mean, we know that the Great Red Spot is powered by Jupiter’s swirling gases, but the great cold spot could be fueled by auroras.
And Jupiter’s auroras would be a remarkable sight to see.
They aren’t exactly like the ones on Earth.
We get our space light shows thanks to the sun’s solar wind, but Jupiter’s auroras don’t rely much on the Sun.
They appear thanks to the charged particles inside Jupiter’s unimaginably huge magnetosphere.
Most of these particles come from Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io.
If the great cold spot is really formed by auroras, then it might be thousands of years old, way older than the Great Red Spot.
And it’s not the only mysterious spot lurking in Jupiter’s deadly atmosphere.
Among the gas giants, beautiful swirling gases, there lies a dark Vortex with an intriguing name: the great Abyss.
This is one of the most baffling features scientists discovered on Jupiter and let me remind you, we’ve sent nine probes to this giant, from Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter in 1973, to Juno, the most recent space probe to do an in-depth study of the planet.
It took Juno 20 passes to finally notice and capture this dark center of the great Abyss.
And yet scientists don’t know exactly what this pitch black hole is or how it formed.
Jupiter’s Great Black Hole
I would call it Jupiter’s Great black hole, but I guess that name would be a little bit confusing.
Besides, the great Abyss isn’t anything like a black hole.
It’s the very dark center of a vortex. might run deep, but at least it wouldn’t suck you in like a black hole, would likely not?
Jupiter’s atmosphere is horrifying.
The gas giant is mainly made of hydrogen and helium, but its clouds are a lot more dangerous than that.
On the top it’s all ammonia, ice, and as soon as you dive deeper, under the colorful patterns, you’d likely encounter ammonium, hydrosulfide crystals, and at the very deep depth of the gas giant there’s water, ice and Vapor.
Yeah, That’s right, Jupiter doesn’t have a solid surface.
And it’s freaky.
Jupiter is basically a frigid, cold Cloud floating in space with a large hydrogen ocean at its Center, yet it’s the biggest planet in the solar system, more massive than all other planets combined.
Winds
Then there are winds
Jupiter’s winds are ridiculously scary.
They’re strong enough to blow more than three Earth’s worth of material around the planet.
At the equator they go as fast as 540 kilometers per second and deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
These winds might be blowing Jupiter’s magnetic field off.
Jupiter’s magnetosphere is gigantic: it’s 21 times the diameter of Jupiter itself.
No other planet in the solar system can boast a stronger magnetosphere than Jupiter’s.
And as if that’s not enough, this gas giant has not two, but three magnetic poles: one at the North Pole, another one at the South Pole, and the third one lies near Jupiter’s equator.
It was just recently discovered by Juno and was dubbed the great blue spot.
I mean, is it just me, or could Jupiter’s spot names use a little variation?
Scientists have noticed how the gas Giant’s magnetic field changes over time, and now they think the intense winds might be causing these changes.
Well, that’s just mind-blowing.
But you know what’s even more stunning than that?
It turns out Jupiter is a planetary cannibal.
In the early days of our solar system, the gas giant was one of the first planets to form.
It really explains why it’s so gigantic.
But despite being so gassy, Jupiter has a lot of heavy elements inside it and, thanks to Juno, we now know that this monstrous planet has about 30 Earth’s worth of heavy elements in it.
All because Jupiter is literally gobbling up other planets.
Okay, they’re not exactly planets, more like planetesimals.
These are clumps of dust and rock that can be hundreds of kilometers across.
If Jupiter hadn’t eaten them for breakfast, well, these clumps could have become a new planet like Mars or Earth.
Just imagine what having another rocky planet in the solar system would be like.
Well, sure, it could have pushed Earth out of the habitable zone, or this new planet could have crashed into Earth, leaving us without any chance to thrive here.
But it could also be pretty cool if there was another Earth-like World nearby.
I wouldn’t mind another planet like Kepler-22b wandering around the solar system.
Well, put on your spacesuit and jump into the spaceship, because that’s a story for another.
What if?
Thank you.