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How did Jupiter's Great Red Spot change so much in five years?


daniel l.

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Compare these photos from Pioneer 10 in 1974 and Voyager 1 in 1979:

Pioneer_10_jup.jpg

Great_Red_Spot_From_Voyager_1.jpg

Honestly, I'm having some difficulties explaining how things could change so rapidly. Did a moon fall in or something? A particularly large asteroid that we didn't see crash? Either way, something must've happened... a quake inside the planets core stirring up the layers?

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They say this doesn't work this way, but I think it doesn't "exist" so long, but "reappears" so long.
Like some huge piece of dirty "snow" lays beneath and being constantly washed out, colors the water gas flowing across.

Maybe remains of nitrogen compounds-rich, brown-colored comet/moon.
Notice that this thing would be much smaller that the smoke column itself.

But I don't claim this is exactly so.

Edited by kerbiloid
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Another thing to be aware of is the instruments used to make the images.  Pioneer's camera system was different and less capable than Voyager's, and even Voyager's was something less than ideal.  And most of the images we are accustomed to seeing from Voyager, et. al., have been post-processed to increase contrast, bring out specific features, and the like; it's probably not what the human eye would see if the eye were at the same location.

Somewhere, I've seen a comparison of Jupiter's coloration from probe imagery and the Hubble, which can be shown in true color; Jupiter looks several degrees more washed-out in the Hubble images.

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It's been shrinking for allot longer than the time between pioneer and voyager.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/jupiters-great-red-spot/

"In fact, astronomers know that the Great Red Spot has been shrinking for more than a century. In the late 1800s the feature was nearly 35° wide in longitude, which corresponds to about 40,000 km (25,000 miles), or roughly three times Earth's diameter. By 1979, when Voyagers 1 and 2 flew past Jupiter at close range, the longitudinal extent had shrunk to 21° (about 25,000 km), though its width from top to bottom remained essentially unchanged at about 12,000 km."

Also:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/hubble-planetary-weather-watcher-outer-solar-system/

At Jupiter, the researchers recently determined its shrinking Great Red Spot is getting more intense in color, possibly because the chemicals that give the storm its color are moving higher up in the atmosphere.

Surprisingly, the storm also appears to be getting taller. Researchers previously thought that the contracting storm would host stronger winds, like an ice skater who spins faster by pulling their arms inward. Instead, however, the storm is expanding in height. “It’s almost like clay being shaped on a potter’s wheel,” NASA stated in a press release. “As the wheel spins, an artist can transform a short, round lump into a tall, thin vase by pushing inward with his hands. The smaller he makes the base, the taller the vessel will grow.”.

 

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Jupiter's "surface" is just a maelstrom of fluids.

 

If anything, what's interesting with GRS is the fact that it's still standing and hadn't fade out, not that it's fading out and isn't eternal.

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5 hours ago, daniel l. said:

Compare these photos from Pioneer 10 in 1974 and Voyager 1 in 1979:

Pioneer_10_jup.jpg

Great_Red_Spot_From_Voyager_1.jpg

Honestly, I'm having some difficulties explaining how things could change so rapidly. Did a moon fall in or something? A particularly large asteroid that we didn't see crash? Either way, something must've happened... a quake inside the planets core stirring up the layers?

Global warming. . . . .no wait, global cooling . . . . .hmmm, climate change . . . . . Gremlins throwing smoke bombs . . . . . . . Alien experiments!!!!!

How about just ordinary Jupiter scale weather.

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