Does Jupiter's Great Red Spot Shrinking Tell Us Anything?
Source: Wikimedia |
Source: Hubble/NASA - Click to Enlarge |
Hubble:
Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot — a swirling storm feature larger than Earth — is shrinking. This downsizing, which is changing the shape of the spot from an oval into a circle, has been known about since the 1930s, but now these striking new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images capture the spot at a smaller size than ever before.Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a churning anticyclonic storm [1]. It shows up in images of the giant planet as a conspicuous deep red eye embedded in swirling layers of pale yellow, orange and white. Winds inside this Jovian storm rage at immense speeds, reaching several hundreds of kilometres per hour.Historic observations as far back as the late 1800s [2] gauged this turbulent spot to span about 41 000 kilometres at its widest point — wide enough to fit three Earths comfortably side by side. In 1979 and 1980 the NASA Voyager fly-bys measured the spot at a shrunken 23 335 kilometres across. Now, Hubble has spied this feature to be smaller than ever before."Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the spot is now just under 16 500 kilometres across, the smallest diameter we've ever measured," said Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA.Amateur observations starting in 2012 revealed a noticeable increase in the spot's shrinkage rate. The spot's "waistline" is getting smaller by just under 1000 kilometres per year. The cause of this shrinkage is not yet known."In our new observations it is apparent that very small eddies are feeding into the storm," said Simon. "We hypothesised that these may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics of the Great Red Spot."Simon's team plan to study the motions of these eddies, and also the internal dynamics of the spot, to determine how the stormy vortex is fed with or sapped of momentum.This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Regarding its reddish color, Wikipedia clues us in:
It is not known exactly what causes the Great Red Spot's reddish color. Theories supported by laboratory experiments suppose that the color may be caused by complex organic molecules, red phosphorus, or yet another sulfur compound. The GRS varies greatly in hue, from almost brick-red to pale salmon, or even white. The higher temperature of the reddest central region is the first evidence that the Spot's color is affected by environmental factors.[80] The spot occasionally disappears from the visible spectrum, becoming evident only through the Red Spot Hollow, which is its niche in the South Equatorial Belt (SEB). The visibility of GRS is apparently coupled to the appearance of the SEB; when the belt is bright white, the spot tends to be dark, and when it is dark, the spot is usually light. The periods when the spot is dark or light occur at irregular intervals; as of 1997, during the preceding 50 years, the spot was darkest in the periods 1961–1966, 1968–1975, 1989–1990, and 1992–1993.[86](What happened in 1967 that the spot became lighter??? But I digress...)
Edom is often compared to Mars for various reasons. Besides the fact that the word Edom is related to Adom - red, the color of Mars, Mars is named for the Roman (Edomite) god of war.
However, there is another strong comparison. If you take the concept of the שבעה כוכבי לכת (loosely, seven heavenly bodies), you have the following list, using the Rambam's order:
No. | Hebrew Name | English Name |
---|---|---|
1 | ירח\לבנה | Moon |
2 | כוכב | Mercury |
3 | נוגה | Venus |
4 | חמה | Sun |
5 | מאדים | Mars |
6 | צדק | Jupiter |
7 | שבתי | Saturn |
Ovadia 1:4, talking about Edom:
May it happen speedily in our days.אִם-תַּגְבִּיהַּ כַּנֶּשֶׁר, וְאִם-בֵּין כּוֹכָבִים שִׂים קִנֶּךָ--מִשָּׁם אוֹרִידְךָ, נְאֻם-יְהוָהThough thou make thy nest as high as the eagle, and though thou set it among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.
2 Comments:
It is interesting that this post is coming in the fifth week of S'firah. Pesach Sheini is on the first day of the fifth week and Lag B'Omer is on the fifth day of the fifth month. The week that corresponds to Hod.
David says in psalm 2 lamah ragshu goyim the last letters = 51 =edom . amalak is reishite goyim amalak , for amalaks roote is edom acxcording to ramchal ztzl . . The first letters in psalm 2 lama rasgshu goyim = regel , meaning tikkun a habritis 161 +72 =233 Abir Yaakovs chidush . Rege = zachor =233 , ie zachor amalak , as in amalak attacked the weak from behind . ie lacked regelime to fight . A sod from the Gra is B"H B' B the shnei meshichim lament in the 2 regelime Hod and Netzach . May we be worthy in the merits of the rightous who dwell in the earth all my prayers are fullfilled psalm 16 , that Hashem lets the shnei meshichime build the legs of nezach and hod .
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