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Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

nasa.gov

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Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#61

Post by JohnHammersley »

jobu wrote: post #5

“Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole,” said Bolton. “There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. We have 36 more flybys to study just how unique it really is.” This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting: http://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explain...

"This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting"

Yes, me too -- thanks for posting your reply and the link, I've now learnt something new today (and it's only 00:45 so that's a good start to the weekend!).

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#63

Post by drivers99 »

Bjartr wrote: post #57
jlarocco wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common use of the word "unique". The usage has deviated from the original meaning. Making a big deal out of it doesn't make you look smart; it makes you look out of touch.

I am unfamiliar with unique meaning anything but "one of a kind", mind educating me?

Another definition of unique is "particularly remarkable, special, or unusual" [1].

Makes sense with how the original quote also said "We have 36 more flybys to study just how unique it really is."

www.merriam-webster.com has one definition which says it's a synonym of "unusual" [2].

[1] https://www.google.com/#q=unique (in the top info box)

[2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unique (#3 in the full definition, all-caps meaning that it's a synonym for the word in caps)

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#66

Post by Diederich »

jl6 wrote: post #28

I understand Juno flew as close as 4,200km. Are there any pictures from that distance? The closest here says it was taken from 38,000km.

Given the exceptionally slow transfer rate, I suspect we will be seeing even better images over the next few weeks.

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#67

Post by gregwtmtno »

mcguire wrote: post #42
dmreedy wrote: post #6

Absolutely breathtaking. Interesting that they phrase the headline almost as if to imply uniqueness. My impression was that Saturn's hexagon was the unique situation (occurring, hypothetically, only under very specific conditions). Is it expected then that Uranus and Neptune's poles will look different still?

Uranus has an axial tilt of around 90°, so it is undoubtedly completely wacky. I have no idea what Neptune's looks like.

No one does. Neptune and Uranus have been visited by only Voyager 2. Neptune's pole wasn't covered in the flyby.

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#68

Post by simcop2387 »

brianpgordon wrote: post #59
jobu wrote: post #5

“Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole,” said Bolton. “There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. We have 36 more flybys to study just how unique it really is.” This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting: http://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explain...

Does Saturn have an identical cloud pattern on its south pole? I always hear about the north pole, but without geographic features wouldn't there be symmetry between the north and south poles?

Not quite, but there's definitely something strange there.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081027.html

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#69

Post by tokai »

Aeolos wrote: post #21
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the era of big hard drives and fat pipes, people forget that 6 megabytes is a lot of raw data if it's not packed with unnecessary GUI elements, high-res video, and inefficient code.

On the other hand, 6MB is the typical file size for the jpg-compressed images taken by my 20MP smartphone camera. It is all a matter of perspective.

Juno's camera is 1,9MP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JunoCam

Re: Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

#70

Post by jnicholasp »

guelo wrote: post #33
jnicholasp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant, thanks. So how long before we start putting solar panels in close, direct orbit around the Sun?

Then we could beam the energy back to earth using lasers so bright that they would burn plasma holes through our atmosphere and precisely target receiving stations where they would vaporize water which would power a steam turbine. Totally doable, I'd say we could get it up and running in a couple years.

This sounds like sarcasm, but yes: solar collectors in close orbit around the sun, huge flying parabolic mirrors focusing solar energy that's already 7-10x more dense than it is at 1 AU, beaming that energy to receivers sitting in orbit around the Earth (perhaps at Lagrange 1 and, via L4/L5, L2 to reach the night side of the planet), relayed in to near earth orbit satellites, and being beamed down to many surface locations at safe intensities that might well be used to boil ocean water, driving steam turbines and producing fresh water (and salt).

Such a system could provide energy dense power to the entire solar system (skipping the steam turbine step for most locations, and going pure solar electric), up to large installations for entire planets, and down to individual spaceships.

I'm not suggesting we'll do it tomorrow. But within a hundred years, if we get and keep our shit together..?

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