

Jupiter loses a stripe. - RiderOfGiraffes
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18889-jupiter-loses-a-stripe.html

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jrockway
Interesting article. Normally when I read an article in the form of "some
natural phenomenon has stopped occurring", I get worried and think of how the
human race is fucking over the planet and we're all going to die, unless we
figure out what we did wrong. That was the initial thought that went through
my mind when I clicked through to this article.

Then I realized, hey... that's another planet. We didn't cause the problem! We
can just watch and not care one way or the other. If we figure out why, great.
If we never do... also fine.

Quite relaxing.

~~~
tom_rath
Actually, we probably do want to care about that. We know Earth's environment
is changing but be don't really know why. Our planet is a single data point in
the solar system, which makes analysis a little difficult.

Is Mars getting warmer or colder? Is Jupiter? Why is Jupiter's atmosphere
visibly changing? If all other planets in the solar system are getting
warmer/colder, shouldn't we expect Earth's temperature to change as well?

It's like a bright neon sign flashing "Clearly Explained Reason for Increased
Solar System Exploration", but the space agency budget folks will likely
ignore it and attempt to gain public support through some asinine vision quest
thing instead.

~~~
Retric
I agree that sending probes thought the solar system is interesting, but other
planets are not worming.

PS: This is the second time the band has disappeared discovering why that
happens may be interesting like the North pole hexagon cloud pattern over
Saturn but it's probably not a temperature effect:
[http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060519/full/news060515-17.ht...](http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060519/full/news060515-17.html)

~~~
tom_rath
Do we have sufficient data to conclude that other planets are not warming? How
far back does our accurate, consistent measurement go? Years? A decade or two?

I'm not sure we have sufficient data to conclude anything right now. We know
astoundingly little about the neighbourhood we live in.

~~~
mrkurt
I don't want to sound like too much of a jackass here, but do you have any
reason to think that other planets _are_ warming? The rhetorical technique of
"pose a question without any real backing, then demand proof when someone
answers" drives me nuts.

~~~
tom_rath
Yes. For one, there's that big ol' fusion furnace in the middle of the place
that's tossing out a variable amount of energy as time goes on.

Examining the weather of other planets would help explain if solar activity or
other factors are affecting planetary temperatures more than recent human
actions.

~~~
demallien
The sun isn't responsible for global warming.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7327393.stm>

~~~
tom_rath
Please don't bring that politicized stuff into the discussion. That's a
different flame war entirely.

If Jupiter is warming/cooling or Mars is warming/cooling, then something has
to be responsible for it, and it sure isn't human activity.

If not the sun, then what? Something about planetary environments we're likely
interested in learning more about, right?

~~~
demallien
You don't get to just label contrary scientific findings as 'political', and
dismiss it out of hand. Here's the published paper that the article refers to:
<http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/3/2/024001/> The correlations don't hold
up under analysis, and that's really all there is to be said on the subject.
But if you feel that you can refute that paper with evidence, then go for it.
I for one would love for you to be right, It's no doubt save me (and everyone
else on the planet) a whole load of economic pain. Sadly, reality does't seem
to be going along with my desires.

~~~
tom_rath
I didn't dismiss/refute/claim anything or intend to start yet another global
warming flame war. I'm probably as familiar with that research as you are and
I'm not refuting it.

If other planets are warming/cooling then something is responsible for it. If
it's not the sun, then it's something else related to planetary environments
with which we are not familiar. Studying that would be A Good Idea, regardless
of where people stand on global warming, because examining Earth alone just
gives us a single data point.

What's happening on Mars? Does it parallel the changes we're seeing on Earth
to some degree? What's happening in Jupiter's atmosphere to bring about such a
dramatic change in a short period of time?

Could we see a similar dramatic change on this planet?

------
chime
That's quite a difference: <http://i.imgur.com/ISCI3.png>

Note that the Great Red Spot is in the same location where the stripe used to
be. I'm surprised they didn't mean that in the article.

If you look at how the Great Red Spot spins against the southern stripe, you
can imagine it gobbling up the stripe:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/790106-02...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/790106-0203_Voyager_58M_to_31M_reduced.gif)

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RyanMcGreal
On closer inspection, astronomers detected what appears to be a large and
rapidly-growing collection of black rectangles on the surface.

~~~
johngalt
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE USE THEM
TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE

*Edit Ack! pavlov beat me to it

~~~
RyanMcGreal
Pedantic note: the last part - "USE THEM TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE" - was
added to the movie version, in which the story was overlaid with a now-
anachronistic Cold War tension between the American and Soviet members of the
mission.

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davidbr02
I'm sure it will turn up in the last place you look for it

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xenonite
same could happen to... eg. the gulf stream! europe would be frozen like
sibiria...

look around, in fact there are people anticipating a shutdown:
<http://www.gulfstreamshutdown.com/>

------
pavlov
"All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there."

(A. C. Clarke, "2010")

~~~
mapleoin
why? or would that be considered a spoiler to the book?

~~~
rauljara
It would be pretty hard to explain why without explaining 90% of the plot.
Fortunately, there is wikipedia, which will do the spoiling for me -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010:_Odyssey_Two>

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xenonite
conspiracy theories, anyone?

~~~
dca
BP was mining for some toxic gas on the surface of the planet when something
went horribly wrong. Now they're pumping out 5000 Bcfe's of it per day into
the southern hemisphere and its destroyed the red stripe we'd become so
accustomed to.

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gaius
WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?

~~~
Groxx
Don't forget the other important question:

WHERE ARE THEY?

