Posts Tagged: Jupiter
It's Science!
3

Apparently, When Ultramafic Rock Melts, Its Conductivity Spikes, And That's Why Io Distorts Jupiter's Magnetic Field As Dramatically As It Does

| May 13th, 2011

"Later experiments in mineral physics found out that when ultramafic rocks, which are rocks very high in magnesium and iron—when those are melted, their conductivity shoots up by orders or magnitude. And it is that very high conductivity that can create the type of signature we have seen. So, we needed mineral physics to catch up with our data." —For a long time, scientists have wondered why the magnetometer readings around the Jovean moon Io were so crazy. Turns out it's because Io is so ultramafic. Io is also the most volcanic world in the entire solar system, due to a seething, 30-mile-thick ocean of magma just beneath [...]

16

Will Jupiter Save Us From Bombardment From Outer Space? Absolutely Not, And Here Is The Math

| July 21st, 2009

Some big scary thing hit Jupiter and gave it a black eye. Freaky! Freakier: the guy who found this out is some dude in his backyard in Australia. (NASA? Anyone?) He told his hometown paper: "If anything like that had hit the Earth it would have been curtains for us, so we can feel very happy that Jupiter is doing its vacuum-cleaner job and hoovering up all these large pieces before they come for us." Well that's a nice idea, isn't it? But ha ha, um NO.

What a World
4

Jupiter To Have Large Negative Magnitude This Weekend (That's Good)

| September 17th, 2010

"The planet should be highly visible to the naked eye; with Jupiter's apparent magnitude of -2.94, only the moon will be brighter after Venus sets relatively early in the evening. Apparent magnitude is a measure of an object's luminosity as viewed from Earth; faint objects have large positive magnitudes, whereas bright objects have large negative magnitudes. When Jupiter and Earth draw near, the nearly full moon will shine with an apparent magnitude of -11.87. Jupiter will be visible in the direction of the constellation Pisces, appearing to the east and low in the sky at sunset, before moving toward the south as the night progresses. With a decent set [...]

Quicklink
12

The Curious Disappearance Of The Planetary Belt

| May 12th, 2010

Jupiter's Southern Equatorial Belt has disappeared. I don't know why, or what it all means, but if it is anything like this Merucy in retrograde nonsense that plagued us until so very recently I am gonna hurt somebody. Whichever one of you took that planet's belt, give it back, okay? I've had enough.