Baffling Perfectly Geometric ‘Polygons’ of Cyclones on Jupiter
The stable, geometric arrangements of mind-bogglingly huge vortexes are still unexplained and may hint at new physics.
At the poles of Jupiter, enormous cyclones swirl in neat geometric patterns that stay stable for years at a time, a phenomenon that remains unexplained and that scientists have said hints at the need for new physics.
The hurricane-force storms were first discovered by NASA’s Juno mission, which has captured unprecedented observations of Jupiter since it arrived in orbit around the planet in 2016.
In the planet’s northernmost region, a central cyclone is located near the pole, while eight others dance around it at lower circumpolar latitudes in an octagonal pattern. In the south, a similar cluster of five cyclones form the shape of a pentagon.
Now, scientists led by Andrew Ingersoll, who serves as Earle C. Anthony Professor of Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, have shed new light on the strange storms that encircle Jupiter’s north pole, each of which is about as large as the continental United States.
Their results suggest that an “anticyclonic ring” of winds that blow in the opposite direction of the cyclones “is needed for the stability of the polygonal pattern,” though the team noted that other questions about the storms remain, according to a study published on Thursday in Nature Astronomy.
“Since 2017 the Juno spacecraft has observed a cyclone at the north pole of Jupiter surrounded by eight smaller cyclones arranged in a polygonal pattern,” the researchers said in the study. “It is not clear why this configuration is so stable or how it is maintained.”
“The polygons and the individual vortices that comprise them have been stable for the four years since Juno discovered them,” the team added. “The polygonal patterns rotate slowly, or not at all….In contrast, Saturn has only one vortex, a cyclone, at each pole.”
To get a firmer read on how the polygons form and then remain so steady, Ingersoll and his colleagues measured the winds and dynamics of the extraterrestrial tempests with Juno’s Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument. JIRAM is able to spot details of the poles down to scales of 180 kilometers (110 miles), a resolution that exposes a torrent of winds that acts as a kind of brace for the cyclones, which is the key to their stability.
However, what the team weren’t able to see in the observations is as consequential as what they did spot. The researchers noted that they did not find “the expected signature of convection,” the process by which heat is transferred through churning fluids, in contrast to previous research, according to the study.
Ingersoll and his colleagues said that future work is needed to reconcile these conflicting datasets, noting in their new work that “a parallel study of Jupiter’s south polar vortices, focusing on vorticity and stability, represents a step in the right direction.”
These beautiful geometric storms are just one of many mysterious processes on Jupiter that scientists are hoping to probe with missions such as Juno, or the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope. As the solar system’s biggest planet, Jupiter has no lack of bizarre and unique phenomena, but it can also serve as a model to understand similar observations on other planets, including Earth.
“These cyclones are new weather phenomena that have not been seen or predicted before,” said Cheng Li, a Juno scientist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a co-author of the new study, in a 2019 NASA statement about previous research.
“Nature is revealing new physics regarding fluid motions and how giant planet atmospheres work,” he said. “We are beginning to grasp it through observations and computer simulations. Future Juno flybys will help us further refine our understanding by revealing how the cyclones evolve over time.”
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Howdy
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Polygon? Looks roughly square to me.
New physics = Creation of something, to explain something, that evades explanation? Sounds about right.
Perhaps theirs a particular land arrangement of troughs and valleys, or due to the so-called electric universe, the lines of force cause it? Changing poles, changing position.
Multi vortexes to create a collectively more powerfull vortex, like a vacuum cleaner….
Land on the planet to learn the truth… If you can.
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Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
Jupiter is a gas giant. There is no land, hills, valleys. The new physics needs to start with the realization that gravity has nothing to do with mass and Jupiter is a giant solid planet.
Herb
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Howdy
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They say it’s a gas giant Herb. I wouldn’t trust them on that. Easier to create some explanation, as is the way.
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Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
It has to be a gas giant. They can calculate its volume and using Newton’s law of gravity they can calculate its mass from the velocity and distance of its moons. Its density means it must be composed of gasses. The measurements are right and the theory of gravity is indisputable. What subatomic particle can be created to fix this?
Herb
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Howdy
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Herb, as I recall, you don’t support gravity in that way. In any case, the past shows beyond doubt that all this stuff about space supposed to be real, is not. No, I’m not a flatty.
Once, the Sun was a ball of gas on fire. Some time later…. Oh no, hang on a minute, that’s wrong, now it’s a reactor, space is electric, space has weather yada yada. Everything I was ‘taught’ about the reality of space is nonsense. The true reality is that its a lot of supposition based on limited evidence and guesswork.
Howdy
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I know your being tongue in cheek Herb, and you’re not into spirit stuff and religion but here’s one for you.
You would agree this planet is in a cess-pool? So remember Pluto was de-listed from the planets? Pluto is the planet of transformation. Rising phoenix type transformation. So maybe ‘man’ throwing it in the pan has repercussions? I expect most will say it’s not even a thing, or coincidence.
Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
Earth is not a cess pool but people have gone to s–t.
I am of the opinion that the universe does not really care about our foibles.
Herb
Howdy
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Nothing to do with the universe Herb, but I’ll leave it there.
Jakie
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Great example of geometric forms forming from a particular sound frequency.
Is it being generated internally or externally?
See cymetics.
“In the beginning was the Word.”
All of Creation was formed from & by the Word.
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Jakie
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Cymatics.
Cymatics https://g.co/kgs/nnvnBg
Or, sumptin lak dat.
Recall a scene of traveling into a gas giant to a Capitol city of Dealers in Lush? Heh!
“The Spice Must Flow.”
Jupiter Ascending https://g.co/kgs/Z7tSc9
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Moffin
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All the circular ‘things’ appear to be rotating anticlockwise without counter rotation in between. Unusual. Intuitively impossible.
They are rotating around what looks like a mutated wooly cat’s head.
Rewriting physics indeed. What has the logician pondered? Michael?
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Moffin,
Good comment! And I hope Michael responds. I plan to compose a comment today as I ask myself what am I seeing in these images going back to first shared here. I have to find its link so it is convenient for you and other readers to compare it with this one.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Moffin,
Just reread this article and see the image was not an observation of the new space telescope. I am certainly having problems with reading correctly these days. But I have stated before that I am slow but I finally get there. And because of your comment, I am not going to waste my time comparing two images which are not being observed with the same instrument from the same place. However, the issue involves IR radiation which is the same in both cases and does not change this issue which I was going to focus upon.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Moffin and PSI Readers,,
“While careful planning for Webb’s first full-color images has been underway for a long time, the new telescope is so powerful that it is difficult to predict exactly how the first images will look. “Of course, there are things we are expecting and hoping to see, but with a new telescope and this new high-resolution infrared data, we just won’t know until we see it,” said STScI’s lead science visuals developer Joseph DePasquale.” (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/first-images-from-nasa-s-webb-space-telescope-coming-soon)
“In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud.” (https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/)
After reading these two brief descriptions of how the variable “visible” colors I see in the two images of Jupiter have been generally transformed from the the instruments which detect ONLY IR radiation, I ask myself: What am I really seeing???
Based upon what has been observed here on Earth, I pretend to know that the solar radiation of the sun, which ‘illuminates’ the Earth’s atmosphere and its surfaces, has primary photons which are generally classified as ultraviolet, visible, and Infrared (IR) radiation. And I know that the temperature of the Earth and its troposphere, which though primarily is a gas is also known to contain some tiny, tiny liquid and/or solid particles, is not great enough to emit ultraviolet and visible radiation but is great enough to emit some IR radiation. Which IR radiation I can feel if I stand near a hot black colored stove or ‘burn’ my finger if I hold my finger too long on its surface.
And we know there is observed evidence that the interior of the Earth is being heated by spontaneous natural nuclear fission reactions. However, since Jupiter and the other “gaseous” planet’s densities are observed to be much less than those of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, it generally accepted that no nuclear reactions are occurring within their interiors of hydrogen and helium gases.
I stop here to allow anyone to correct anything I have already written which they cannot accept.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Moffin
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Hi Jerry. There are no grammatical errors in your comment. Slow is good.
Thank you for reminding us what we are being presented with in the constructed photograph.
These vortexes all spinning anticlockwise around a center is what a bearing on an axle supporting a wheel do. That could give support to Lit’s comment below.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Moffin,
Because of where you live and what you do and have done, you are probably familiar with the phenomenon of “resonance”. But I have to ask: Do you know about this phenomenon?
Yes, Lit’s comment is good.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Lit
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A fast spinning small solid core beneath the thick layers of gas would explain these vortexes.
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Herb Rose
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Hi Lit,
The ejection clouds from the impact of the comet fragments shows thatJupiter has a relatively thin atmosphere and a large solid body.
With the pressure from gravity and the amount of energy coming from the sun, the atmosphere must be hydrogen and the noble gases.
Herb
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Lit,
First I ask: Do you know that that Jupiter has been observed to have a rotational period of a little less than 10 hours. So the entire planet might be considered to be spinning fast. Eventually I will call attention to observations will suggest there is a solid dirt surface at the base of what might be termed Jupiter’s atmosphere.
However I am slow and make mistakes if I try to go too fast. But given the possibility of what your ideas require, please explain your reasoning for it might support my the reasoning of my observations which seem to being ignored. I will come back with a link and a question after I submit this comment.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Lit,
First I ask: Do you know that that Jupiter has been observed to have a rotational period of a little less than 10 hours. So the entire planet might be considered to be spinning fast. Eventually I will call attention to observations will suggest there is a solid dirt surface at the base of what might be termed Jupiter’s atmosphere.
However I am slow and make mistakes if I try to go too fast. But given the possibility of what your ideas require, please explain your reasoning for it might support my the reasoning of my observations which seem to being ignored. I will come back with a link and a question after I submit this comment. Even though I have been informed that I had submitted the precise I don’t believe because I am editing it with this comment.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
| #
Hi Lit and PSI Readers,
I draw your attention to this grand experiment to observed the natural Arctic Ocean during its fall and winter seasons. And I direct your attentions to the “leads” in its ice surface which spontaneously form and ask: What is causing these leads to form? For I cannot find that participants of this grand experiment, to float the ship, frozen in the Arctic ice sheet, to the North Pole, ever asking themselves this question.
I have to explain; while I promptly have done what I stated I would do, my comments usually have to “await moderation” over which I have no control.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Jerry Krause
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Hi Lit and PSI Readers,
I draw your attention to this grand experiment to observed the natural Arctic Ocean during its fall and winter seasons. And I direct your attentions to the “leads” in its ice surface which spontaneously form and ask: What is causing these leads to form? For I cannot find that participants of this grand experiment, to float the ship, frozen in the Arctic ice sheet, to the North Pole, ever asking themselves this question.
I have to explain; while I promptly have done what I stated I would do, my comments usually have to “await moderation” over which I have no control.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Jerry Krause
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Hi Moffin,
This morning I asked PSI Readers how, or why, it is that so few appear to be interested in HISTORICAL FACTS. (https://principia-scientific.com/discovery-of-anglo-saxon-burials-of-national-significance-in-england/#comment-78221)
I have now reread what the publisher (Louis Elzevir) wrote, as translated by Crew and de Salvio and published in 1914, in his preface to the readers of Galileo’s well known, but seldom read, book. And I found I have been guilty of not calling a PSI Reader’s attention to what Elzevir had written in 1638 at the end of his preface to the READER of Galileo’s book.
“Remembering that the wisdom and power and goodness of the Creator are nowhere exhibited so well as in the heavens and celestial bodies, we can easily recognize the great merit of him who has brought these bodies to our knowledge and has in spite of their almost infinite distance, rendered them easily visible. For according to the common saying, sight can teach more and with greater certainty in a single day than can precept even though repeated a thousand times; or, as another says, intuitive knowledge keeps pace with accurate definition.
“But the divine and natural gifts of this man are are shown to best advantage in the present work where he is seen to have discovered, though not without many labors and long vigils, two entirely new sciences and to have demonstrated them in a rigid, that is, geometric, manner: and what is even more remarkable in this work is the fact that one of the two sciences deals with a subject of never-ending interest, perhaps the most important in nature, one which has engaged the minds of all the great philosophers and one concerning which an extraordinary number of books have been written. I refer to motion [moto locale], a phenomenon exhibiting very many wonderful properties, none of which has hitherto have been discovered or demonstrated by any one. The other science which he has also developed from its very foundation deals with the resistance which solid bodies offer to fracture by external forces [per violenza], a subject of great utility, especially in the sciences and technical arts, and one also abounding in properties and theorems not hitherto observed.
“In this volume one finds the first treatment of these two sciences, full of propositions to which, as time goes on, able thinkers will add many more; also by means of a large number of clear demonstrations the author points the way to many other theorems as will be readily seen and understood by all intelligent readers.”
Have a good day, Jerry
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Nils
| #
Looks like cheese and salami pizza.
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Jakie
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Things are much simpler than it seems.
Consciousness
Frequency
Resonance
Harmonics
Entrainment
Cymatics music demo.
https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs
Hu. Wolf Totem
https://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6yc
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