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In this image provided by NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO team, the planet Jupiter is photographed July 23, 2009 in space. (Photo of NASA, ESA and the ERO Hubble SM4 team via Getty Images)
Something strange is happening with Jupiter.
In a previous column, I had indicated that we were approaching another opposition of the planet Jupiter in early June.
It's the season to start your observations of the mighty planet in our Arizona sky.
This just in:
It seems that the great storm in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the "red spot", is going through dramatic changes.
The red blotch is an object observed on the planet since 1830 with quality telescopes and was probably observed in the 1600s. It is a high atmospheric pressure storm, producing an anticyclonic region located at about 22 degrees of latitude south on the planet.
Robert Hooke is credited as the first person to document the task in 1664.
The storm has been much larger in recent years, with a diameter of more than 25,000 miles and has declined considerably over the last century.
Some say that if surface loss continues, the spot could become a small oval by 2040.
Over the past few days, images of the dismantling of the red stain have appeared in the news. Here is a current picture of the changes:
Storm changes are visible in a medium sized telescope, as Jupiter is easy to see rising in the southeast sky at around 10pm. local hour.
Here is a closer look at the details in the red dot of the current Juno probe orbiting Jupiter.
For observers equipped with medium-sized telescopes, here is a link to a real-time view of Jupiter, which allows you to calculate the best time to view the red spot as the planet rotates in a very short period of 9 hours and 55 minutes. minutes.
The red patch has a six-day rotation period and the highest clouds of the storm are about 5 miles above Jupiter's main cloud system.
The composition of the storm can be made up of a complex variety of organic compounds, such as ammonium hydrosulfide and organic acetylene, to name a few. .
The red color can further be produced by the interaction of solar ultraviolet light on ammonium hydrosulfide.
The red spot lasts for a long time, as no significant frictional force rubs against the storm's leading edge, as would be the case if this monster storm was a hurricane on Earth and was slowed down by a land. Mass.
Unlike the sci-fi film "2010: the year we make contact", in which Jupiter becomes a second sun, the current changes in the red spot are equally astonishing.
You may be looking at something that happens once in a lifetime and we really do not know what to expect with Jupiter.
Finally, Jupiter is very valuable to the Earth, because its great gravity helps to attract many wandering asteroids and debris that could otherwise affect our little planet!
To print your own monthly star chart, click here.
To see the satellites / dates / times of passage, click here.
Listen to Dr. Sky on KTAR News 92.3 FM every Saturday morning at 3 am
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