From
the NASA Webb Telescope:
ADDED: From the WaPo article
"‘Incredible’ Jupiter images revealed by NASA’s James Webb telescope":
Jupiter, where a day is about 10 hours long, has at least 50 moons. The four largest are named: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were first observed by Italian physicist Galileo Galilei in 1610. The images also capture Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, which appears white in the photographs as it’s reflecting sunlight, says NASA. The Great Red Spot is in fact a giant storm bigger than the size of Earth, which has been raging for centuries.
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85 comments:
Oh-oh. "False" color alert.
Looks like a piece of moldy salami.
Cities in Flight by James Blish - Book 1 "They Shall Have the Stars" (1950) takes place on Jupiter where mankind is building a bridge...
Storms rage. Does anyone know how big that red spot is, in units of olympic sized swimming pools?
Look at that midriff!
Jupiter is too much. And having all those moons is just showing off. The next thing the Dems will want to spend a trillion dollars for is another moon for earth. They will demand that we make this moon gap more EQUAL.
It’s awesome!
Lack of big galaxies from the alleged Big Bang is the most interesting angle from the new telescope stories. Why is the expected evidence not there?
Jupiter, where a day is about 10 hours long, has at least 50 moons.
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away. - me in high school
Russian ammunition dumps blowing up and cooking off are more impressive.
The majority of Jupiter's 50 moons are less than 5 km (3 miles) in diameter. Compare that tiny size (for a natural moon) with Earth's Moon's nearly 3,500 km (2,200 miles) diameter. Only Jupiter's 4 largest moons are of a size at all comparable with that — meanwhile circling a planet 10x larger than Earth.
@traditionalguy - Bad Moon Rising
Are we sure that's not a slice of bologna? You know, science!
More here from a NASA blog including a couple of pictures of a wider view that includes a few of Jupiter's moon.
I expect Jupiter to update their profile picture.
You can see the 4 big moons of Jupiter with binoculars.
‘Does anyone know how big that red spot is, in units of olympic sized swimming pools?’
That depends on the depth of the pools and the temperature of the water.
"Lack of big galaxies from the alleged Big Bang is the most interesting angle from the new telescope stories. Why is the expected evidence not there?"
Can you point me to a source other than the article from an intelligent-design website that has been making the rounds? Sincere question, because I can't find anything and what's in that article doesn't make sense to me. For example, why are the far-off galaxies suppose to be large? Seems like they should be small.
There's a huge uproar quietly going on in astronomy circles over the Webb images, not so much for what they show, but for what they don't show. (as was hinted above) There is a complete absence of the expected evidence of the Big Bang and an expanding universe.
Jupiter's the WWE of planets.
"We do not yet know if a solid surface exists on Jupiter. Jupiter's clouds are thought to be about 30 miles (50 km) thick. Below this there is a 13,000 mile (21,000 km) thick layer of hydrogen and helium which changes from gas to liquid as the depth and pressure increase. Beneath the liquid hydrogen layer is a 25,000 mile (40,000 km) deep sea of liquid metallic hydrogen. Beneath this, there might be a solid core which is about one and a half times the size of Earth, but thirty times more massive."
john said...
Does anyone know how big that red spot is, in units of olympic sized swimming pools?
FAR More than 40
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Lack of big galaxies from the alleged Big Bang is the most interesting angle from the new telescope stories. Why is the expected evidence not there?
sssh!
There is NO PLACE in NASA (or, Anywhere in Government) for questions like that!
NASA is a place for computer renderings of Pretty Pictures
Actual Science is something to be left to the Chinese
I wonder what menstruation is like with 50 moons. Hard to tell if you're pregnant.
"The Great Red Spot is in fact a giant storm bigger than the size of Earth, which has been raging for centuries."
So, it was caused by Climate Change?
Oh-oh. “False” color alert.
Of course it's false-color! The Webb telescope only perceives infrared frequencies — which our eyes can't see at all. (Though our skin can feel the heat that the sun puts out at those frequencies — which is how infrared radiation was discovered.)
Such inherent “falseness” doesn't prevent such images from providing a true window and picture into how things would look if our eyes could see beyond the narrow single-octave on the (much wider than a) piano keyboard of the electromagnetic spectrum that we're currently restricted to. Fortunately our instruments — such as the superb Webb space telescope — can see beyond that narrow slit of a single octave of frequencies.
Thus, false, indeed — not!
Indeed, considering only the frequencies our biological eyes can see as the only “true” seeing is itself a kind of falsehood and effectively lying about what's real.
I thank Jupiter, gravity pig, for capturing bits of debris and turning some into moons on their way to and around that gravity hog at the center of our solar system. Big Daddy has provided us some small measure of protection.
This is why we can't have nice things.
That spot ain't red! Liars!
But that is a beautiful photo.
I had my classes build the equivalent of Galileo's telescope with cardboard tubes and a couple of simple lenses. Then they came to school on a night the Galilean moons of Jupiter would be visible. It's not always easy to impress 13 year olds, but when they came back years later to visit, that was something they remembered.
Kind of off topic, but does anyone remember a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one? I vaguely remember it was either Asimov or Bradbury, but I could be wrong. I can't remember the title, but it's a haunting ending. For some reason Jupiter triggered that memory.
All color photography is "false color"; anyone who understands how cameras, film, and image rendering on paper and in pixels knows this, if they stop five seconds to think. (Was Ansel Adams a fraud for representing the world in black and white?)
Color itself is "false", a product of interaction between light and eye and brain which does not inhere in the light wavelength.*
If an astronomical source emits radio or IR or some other wavelengths humans can't see, do we shout "false color" unless the image is rendered black? What value would that have to anyone?
Yes, I know people mess with color to make pictures look pretty, like every professional photographer and every skilled amateur... some of them work at NASA, true.
*The human eye cannot distinguish between light with a "yellow" wavelength (intermediate between "red" and "green" wavelengths) vs "red" and "green" light combined (combining two light rays does not change the wavelength of either. The color of French headlights cannot be accurately rendered by computer monitors. False color!
Oh shit. Global warming got Jupiter.
Look at all the pollution.
I’m old enough to remember when Jupiter’s air was as clean as a hounds tooth.
Wait until Greta see this. My goodness.
Whoever assigned the color to the IR data did an excellent job IMO. Kinda reminds me of the way organs were colored in science books but when you cut open the frog it’s all the same color in there. Don’t know why it reminds me of that.
Elon Musk saw that picture and exclaimed "By Jupiter!"
Or was that "Buy Jupiter!"
I'm beginning to think that NASA really is the world's best funded Instagram account.
thats what it looked like before the keepers of the obelisk, turned it into a second sun
"I expect Jupiter to update their profile picture."
My pronouns are "Him/His".
This is what your government did with $10 billion of your tax dollars. That's it. This photo. Which isn't science. It's just photography.
They didn't buy school lunches for hungry kids. They didn't build any roads. They didn't fix any bridges. They didn't build any new hospitals.
They spent $10 billion taking space selfies for their Instagram page. This doesn't advance science. It didn't show us anything we haven't seen before. It's a complete waste of money for people who have no idea how difficult it is to pay taxes and still have enough to eat and enough gas money to get to work.
How do I "quiet quit" this insane federal government?
This is what your government did with $10 billion of your tax dollars. That's it. This photo. Which isn't science. It's just photography.
They didn't buy school lunches for hungry kids. They didn't build any roads. They didn't fix any bridges. They didn't build any new hospitals.
They spent $10 billion taking space selfies for their Instagram page. This doesn't advance science. It didn't show us anything we haven't seen before. It's a complete waste of money for people who have no idea how difficult it is to pay taxes and still have enough to eat and enough gas money to get to work.
How do I "quiet quit" this insane federal government?
' "False" color alert.'
NASA is Welfare for engineers.
"Does anyone know how big that red spot is, in units of olympic sized swimming pools?"
The Earth would fit into that spot, with room to spare.
Very pretty.
What I find more interesting is the findings so far are not consistent The Big Bang Theory, at least from what I read. But I thought the science was settled?
For the record, science tends to go in cycles. Science will ossify around a particular theory with any questioning of it seen as the equivalent heresy, a new theory comes in that does a better job explaining how things work, this new theory is opposed by all rightminded scientists and the new theory is suppressed as much as possible, the new wave of scientists who are not prejudiced against the new theory take it up as the new orthodoxy, the new theory replaces the old theory, and then science ossifies around the new theory. Quite a bit of this reluctance is the current batch of scientists have based their entire careers around the old theory, and rejecting the old theory essentially declares they are bad at their jobs. Science was invented by humans, like all things human has the same human flaws.
I'm sure our hostess is shaking her head sadly at the art images rather than the science images. I'm not getting why it's so hard to grasp the essential fact that the visible light spectrum that the human eye can record is insufficient to "see" and therefor learn enough about the science. As a result, the vast parts of the electromagnetic spectrum must be detected in other ways and assembled and presented in a manner that we can absorb and digest.
The redder the color, the longer the detected wavelength. The bluer the color, the shorter the wavelength. The reason why the the infrared cameras on the Webb are so valuable is because infrared wavelengths can travel through clouds of space dust and dense regions of gas and permit us to "see" behind those obstacles to us in the visible light spectrum. The fact that the renderings of these data produce spectacularly gorgeous images to us humans is no basis to discount the value of the science that results from our ability to see and understand it.
While she is unquestionably brilliant, our hostess can be a bit cranky in a get-off-my-lawn sort of way. We love that for you, Ann.
- Krumhorn
"This is what your government did with $10 billion of your tax dollars. That's it. This photo. Which isn't science. It's just photography.
"They didn't buy school lunches for hungry kids. They didn't build any roads. They didn't fix any bridges. They didn't build any new hospitals.
"They spent $10 billion taking space selfies for their Instagram page. This doesn't advance science. It didn't show us anything we haven't seen before. It's a complete waste of money for people who have no idea how difficult it is to pay taxes and still have enough to eat and enough gas money to get to work.
"How do I 'quiet quit' this insane federal government?"
Your gripe would be more valid if you first complained about the squandering of money on our War Department (or at least included our expenditures on war and preparations for war in your gripe). Spending on scientific endeavors at least provides returns in our greater knowledge of the physical existence in which we reside, and can lead to technologies that may benefit us.
"... a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one?"
Arthur C. Clarke, The Nine Billion Names Of God.
"For the record, science tends to go in cycles"
That's how it used to work. In fact, if you study the History of Science, you will find that almost everything that any scientist has ever believed is now known to be wrong. Fortunately, that's because they lived in the Past, an era in which Science was confused. We live in the Present, where Science is settled. It would be interesting to try to identify the dividing line precisely.
Kind of off topic, but does anyone remember a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one? I vaguely remember it was either Asimov or Bradbury, but I could be wrong. I can't remember the title, but it's a haunting ending. For some reason Jupiter triggered that memory.
That them reminds me of the Arthur C. Clarke story, "The Nine Billion [Million?} Names of God" where the stars start disappearing at the end.
Blogger Andrew said...
Kind of off topic, but does anyone remember a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one? I vaguely remember it was either Asimov or Bradbury, but I could be wrong. I can't remember the title, but it's a haunting ending. For some reason Jupiter triggered that memory.
That was The Nine Billion Names of God. ~A.C. Clark
"“Look,” whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.)
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
WEATHER UPDATE FOR JUPITER:
THE GREAT RED STORM WILL CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DECADE. EXPECT WINDS OF OVER 1000 MPH, RED-OUT CONDITIONS, AND OCCASIONAL VISITS FROM THOR.
THE REST OF THE PLANET WILL BE COOL FOR THIS TIME OF THE YEAR: ABSOLUTE ZERO IN MOST PLACES. WIND CHILL: ABSOLUTE ZERO MINUS 1000. WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR IF GOING OUT.
Jupiter said...
"I expect Jupiter to update their profile picture."
My pronouns are "Him/His".
Mind if I dead-name you Ƶ ?
Why is the expected evidence not there?
Because the evolution of galaxies is not well understood. This is actually the first look that far back, it is the first evidence from that time. I note that the uneven distribution of galaxies and the discovery that most contain massive black holes is all fairly recent, as is the evidence for dark matter. It is a science in its infancy. Some theories make remarkable predictions that pan out -- the existence of positrons and neutrinos, for instance -- others fail. Shrug, so it goes. I don't think the big bang has been discredited, but we will likely reach a better understanding of its early years. Let a thousand flowers bloom :)
Jupiter,
The dividing line is always right around the date you pass your Final exam in "Physics for Poets".
>>They didn't buy school lunches for hungry kids. They didn't build any roads. They didn't fix any bridges. They didn't build any new hospitals.
So true! They could have given $90 billion to the IRS, instead of the measly $80 billion they just got.
"Look, Columbus.... Why should we fund your sailing expedition? There are still problems right here in Spain. Let's solve those first!"
NASA wasn't always about pretty space pictures.
My father was a pilot for NASA from roughly 1955 to 1985. During that time his programs included:
- Low speed flight
- Vertical takeoff
- Extremely rapid descent landings (e.g. Space shuttle)
- High altitude astronomy, including airborne infrared telescopes.
- Grooving runways for safe landings during rain
- Population studies of arctic mammals
- Tests of prototype satellite weather cameras
- Aircrash investigations
- Quiet landing techniques
- Formation of hurricanes in the ITCZ, and monsoons in the Bay of Bengal
- Development of the tilt-rotor tech (V22 Osprey)
I can't imagine his reaction of he were alive to see what has become of NASA.
does anyone remember a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one? ... For some reason Jupiter triggered that memory.
I love that it was Jupiter who came up with the story title first. Way to go, Jupiter!
I remember reading long ago (1) that if Jupiter had been just 10x bigger than it is (which is not very much bigger in cosmological terms), fusion would have started and our solar system would have been a double-star system - rendering it impossible to have an Earthlike planet in a stable orbit, and (2) that if the Moon (ours) were really much bigger than it is at all, tidal (gravitational) forces would have destroyed both it and the Earth. Our Moon is abnormally large as satellites go.
Thank you to Who- or Whatever put it all together for us!
Beasts of England said...
‘Does anyone know how big that red spot is, in units of olympic sized swimming pools?’
That depends on the depth of the pools and the temperature of the water.
That depends on whether you have a 10-m diving platform on one end, and whether the pool is heated, otherwise assume -150C.
Can we be sure that it's not a food-photo, perhaps better tagged as big/small?
Andrew & Chris: Sounds like the inverse of “Nightfall”.
I saw from another source a story on red shift not being what was expected through Webb too. I’m open to any new info on the topic we can find.
"Mind if I dead-name you Ƶ ?"
Not at all, it brings back pleasant memories. What was her name?
Just don't call me YAHWEH. Even if you spell it JOVE.
Planet of color
"Thank you to Who- or Whatever put it all together for us!"
Trillions of star systems, it was bound to happen.
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
"Lucien said...
Andrew & Chris: Sounds like the inverse of “Nightfall”.
I think that Asimov's "The Last Question" would be the inverse.
I wondered where did the name Io come from? Well, long story short, Io was a mortal lover of Zeus. And when Hera, the wife of Zeus, found out, Zues turned Io into a cow to hide her from Hera. Well, Hera asked Zeus to gift her the heifer, which since he couldn't find a reason not to, did. But Hera sent Argus Panoptes, a giant with 100 eyes, to watch over Io to keep Zeus away. Zeus sent Hermes to distract Argus by telling tales and playing the flute, and then Hermes killed Argus. Zeus then freed Io.
Hera decided to get revenge by sending a gadfly to constantly sting Io. Io was driven away, and crossed the Bosporus straights and found Prometheus chained on Mt Caucasus, by, wait for it, Zeus! Prometheus comforted Io telling her she would eventually be changed back to human form. At the end of the day, Zeus did change Io back in Egypt, and she became the ancestress of Hercules.
As Paul Harvey used to say, and now you know the rest of the story. And, the Greeks had a pretty good imagination!
"Look, Columbus.... Why should we fund your sailing expedition? There are still problems right here in Spain. Let's solve those first!"
That's exactly what they did tell him. They told him the same thing in Italy. The only reason Isabella was eventually prepared to pay for it in 1492 because that is when they finally kicked the last of the Islamic invaders out of Spain.
What makes these Jupiter images "incredible"? I find them entirely credible. The word "incredible" is over-used by those who lack the vocabulary to express awe or wonder ("awesome" is another).
"As Paul Harvey used to say, and now you know the rest of the story."
That's not exactly how I remember it.
But yeah, Io. What a babe!
The images also capture Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, which appears white in the photographs as it’s reflecting sunlight, says NASA.
So what the fuck is it reflecting the rest of the time when it appears red?!?
"Spending on scientific endeavors ... "
Can wait until all the hungry kids are fed, clothed and properly schooled, our bridges aren't collapsing, etc. etc. If there's money left, then yeah, let's piss it away taking space selfies. But since there isn't any money left, this type of shit should not be being spent on.
And for what it's worth, the last President so hated started exactly ZERO wars and they're definitely out to get him for it. Personally, I'd take away Joe Biden's war credit card as well.
Ignorance is Bliss said...
The images also capture Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, which appears white in the photographs as it’s reflecting sunlight, says NASA.
So what the fuck is it reflecting the rest of the time when it appears red?!?
***************
Perhaps you've noticed our world's clouds reflecting different wavelengths of sunlight, depending on where the sun relative to the horizon?
AA's great photos offer visual evidence.
I tried commenting earlier but got an error. Chris-2-4, thanks for identifying the story! That's exactly what I was thinking of. Much appreciated.
And thanks to Lucien and Jupiter for the "inverses." I'll look them up.
"...does anyone remember a sci-fi story in which the stars went out at the end, one by one? ... For some reason Jupiter triggered that memory."
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
The color?
False, but accurate.
The name Great Red Spot has become something of a misnomer. For decades, to the chagrin of backyard telescopic observers, it has been decreasing in size and turning from red to muddy brown. The joke in observing circles is that it is The Mediocre Brown Spot.
>>I think that Asimov's "The Last Question" would be the inverse.
Let there be light!
--gpm
Jupiter said...
' "False" color alert.'
NASA is Welfare for engineers."
As long as we are going to have welfare it's better to subsidize geniuses who advance civilization the the grifters, morons and deadbeats we are subsidizing now and who will never contribute much to society. We can start by getting rid of the department of mis-education and the student loan scam.
Jupiter said...
' "False" color alert.'
NASA is Welfare for engineers."
As long as we are going to have welfare it's better to subsidize geniuses who advance civilization the the grifters, morons and deadbeats we are subsidizing now and who will never contribute much to society. We can start by getting rid of the department of mis-education and the student loan scam.
The great thing about Jupiter is how easy it is to see Jupiter and its 4 moons with a pair of decent 10x50 binoculars. Best way to hook your children (and grandchildren 20 years later) on stargazing. Works even better than watching meteor showers in my opinion, though that works as well, especially if you get one that blazes across the sky, lighting up the night like a really long lightning bolt. But those pictures really are amazing.
Jupiter said...
"Lucien said...
Andrew & Chris: Sounds like the inverse of “Nightfall”.
I think that Asimov's "The Last Question" would be the inverse."
That was the story that popped into my head when I read the question. I don't think I have ever read "The Nine Billion Names of God," but I have read "The Last Question more than twice.
Rh bested me.
I was born in 1943, so when I started reading SciFi it was mostly stuff written in the '30's on into the early '60's. On the one hand, we could accept stories about Mars with an ancient and (perhaps not yet) extinct civilation, and Venus with cities floating on a great sea. Jovian moons were anything goes for writers.
Damned science fouled that up.
So Mars stories had to become Dune stories.
Asimov's novels about the galactic univeral Empire don't deal with what we now know about the center of the Galaxy.
I don't think this is all bad. Maybe we can recruit public support for real science, and let sci-fi writers do what they do?
Great Red Spot turning white? Get this planet a good dermatologist, stat.
Blogger Eleanor said...
I had my classes build the equivalent of Galileo's telescope with cardboard tubes and a couple of simple lenses. Then they came to school on a night the Galilean moons of Jupiter would be visible. It's not always easy to impress 13 year olds, but when they came back years later to visit, that was something they remembered.
8/23/22, 11:53 AM
That's the kind of thing that inspires kids to go into science and engineering. I can recall building an electric motor from a few nails, some copper wire and electrical tape. The darn thing actually worked.
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