{"id":3714,"date":"2006-03-04T08:59:48","date_gmt":"2006-03-04T16:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2006\/03\/04\/jupiter-needs-oxy-10\/"},"modified":"2019-12-20T09:15:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T17:15:27","slug":"jupiter-needs-oxy-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2006\/03\/04\/jupiter-needs-oxy-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Jupiter Needs Oxy-10"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:6876,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/science.nasa.gov\\\/headlines\\\/y2006\\\/02mar_redjr.htm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20100318101156\\\/http:\\\/\\\/science.nasa.gov\\\/headlines\\\/y2006\\\/02mar_redjr.htm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 14:47:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 14:47:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6877,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/science.slashdot.org\\\/article.pl?sid=06\\\/03\\\/04\\\/0639214&amp;from=rss&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/science.slashdot.org\\\/article.pl?sid=06\\\/03\\\/04\\\/0639214&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p><strong>March 3, 2006:<\/strong> Backyard astro-pharmacists, grab your acne medication. Jupiter is growing a new red zit.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Go of the Philippines photographed it on February 27th using an 11-inch telescope and a CCD camera:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2006\/03\/graphics\/go1_strip_lab-1.jpg\" height=\"232\" width=\"491\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"0\" alt=\"Jupiter's Acne\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Above:<\/strong> Zits on Jupiter, photographed by amateur astro-pharmacist Christopher Go on Feb. 27, 2006.<\/p>\n<p>The official name of this zit is &#8220;Oval BA,&#8221; but &#8220;Red Jr.&#8221; might be better. It&#8217;s about half the size of the famous Great Red Zit and almost exactly the same color.<\/p>\n<p>Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller zits collided and merged. Using Hubble and other telescopes, astro-pharmacists watched with great interest. A similar merger centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Zit, a pustule twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.<\/p>\n<p>At first, Oval BA remained white-\u2014the same color as the zits that combined to create it. But in recent months, things began to change:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The zit was white in November 2005, it slowly turned brown in December 2005, and red a few weeks ago,&#8221; reports Go. &#8220;Now it is the same color as the Great Red Zit!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wow!&#8221; says Dr. Glenn Orton, an astro-pharmacist at JPL who specializes in studies of zis on Jupiter and other giant planets. &#8220;This is convincing. We&#8217;ve been monitoring Jupiter for years to see if Oval BA would turn red-\u2014and it finally seems to be happening.&#8221; (Red Jr? Orton prefers &#8220;the not-so-Great Red Zit.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Why red?<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, no one knows precisely why the Great Red Zit itself is red. A favorite idea is that the sore dredges pus from deep beneath Jupiter&#8217;s cloudtops and lifts it to high altitudes where solar ultraviolet radiation&#8211;via some unknown chemical reaction-\u2014produces the familiar brick color.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Great Red Zit is the most inflamed sore on Jupiter, indeed, in the whole solar system,&#8221; says Orton. The top of the sore rises 8 km above surrounding clouds. &#8220;It takes a powerful sore to lift material so high,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2006\/03\/graphics\/pia02823_med2.gif\" height=\"315\" width=\"450\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"0\" alt=\"Jupiter Zit Formation\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Above:<\/strong> Hubble images detail the birth of oval BA in 1997-2000.<\/p>\n<p>Oval BA may have strengthened enough to do the same. Like the Great Red Zit, Red Jr. may be lifting pus above the clouds where solar ultraviolet rays turn &#8220;chromophores&#8221; (color-changing compounds) red. If so, the deepening red is a sign that the sore is intensifying.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some of Jupiter&#8217;s white zits have appeared slightly reddish before, for example in late 1999, but not often and not for long,&#8221; says Dr. John Rogers, author of the book &#8220;Jupiter: The Giant Planet,&#8221; which recounts telescopic observations of Jupiter for the last 100+ years. &#8220;It will indeed be interesting to see if Oval BA becomes permanently red.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>See for yourself: Jupiter is easy to find in the dawn sky. Step outside before sunrise, look south and up. Jupiter outshines everything around it. Small telescopes have no trouble making out Jupiter&#8217;s cloudbelts and its four largest moons. Telescopes 10-inches or larger with CCD cameras should be able to track Red Jr. with ease.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s next? Will Red Jr. remain red? Will it grow or subside? Stay tuned for updates.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>This (stupid) parody article and images are adapted from the original &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/headlines\/y2006\/02mar_redjr.htm\" title=\"NASA: Jupiter's New Red Spot\">Jupiter&#8217;s New Red Spot<\/a>,&#8221; found <a href=\"http:\/\/science.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/03\/04\/0639214&amp;from=rss\" title=\"\/.: Jupiter Gets New Red Spot\">via \/.<\/a>. Not my most mature work, but it amused me a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backyard astro-pharmacists, grab your acne medication. Jupiter is growing a new red zit. The official name of this zit is &#8216;Oval BA,&#8217; but &#8216;Red Jr.&#8217; might be better. It&#8217;s about half the size of the famous Great Red Zit and almost exactly the same color.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043],"tags":[6,514],"class_list":["post-3714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-humor","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}