Is The Great Red Spot Unraveling?

Ever since I was a small boy I remember viewing Jupiter with my telescope and marveling at the huge red spot on the planet.  Known as the Great Red Spot (GRS), this phenomena has been a staple of Jupiter viewing for hundreds of years.

However, in the past few decades it has started to shrink, and continues to do so. In fact, the GRS used to be large enough to hold three Earths. Now only one would be sufficient to cover up the spot.

The giant storm appears to be unraveling. “I haven’t seen this before in my 17-or-so years of imaging Jupiter,” reports veteran observer Anthony Wesley of Australia. 

Will it disappear completely in our lifetimes?  Maybe.  I will be photographing Jupiter in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Complete story at SpaceWeatherArchive.

Teen discovers a Circumbinary Planet

A teen scientist from New York has discovered several distant exoplanets,
including a world that orbits two suns (artist’s concept shown).
T. PYLE/NASA/JPL-CALTECH

For all you Sci Fi fans ... remember Tatooine, Luke Skywalker’s home world in Star Wars?  That was a great sight on the theater's screen, a majestic planet orbiting twin stars.
Now, a teen in New York City has discovered just such a world orbiting a pair of stars far, far away.
Brian Wu, 17, presented his findings this week at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz.

For the complete story, go to Science News for Students

Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature’s Most Common Form of Water

A new experiment confirms the existence of “superionic ice,” a bizarre form of water that might comprise the bulk of giant icy planets throughout the universe.

The discovery of superionic ice potentially solves the puzzle of what giant icy planets like Uranus and Neptune are made of. They’re now thought to have gaseous, mixed-chemical outer shells, a liquid layer of ionized water below that, a solid layer of superionic ice comprising the bulk of their interiors, and rocky centers.

Read the complete story at Quanta Magazine.