1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,280 Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 2: is Robert. 4 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:17,599 Speaker 3: Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 2: We are back with our second episode on the Great 6 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 2: Red Spot of Jupiter, and in the last episode we'll 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 2: get to sort of a rundown of what we talked 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 2: about last time. But one of the things we did 9 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 2: mention a few different times is how Jupiter does show 10 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 2: up in science fiction, oftentimes just as a backdrop, sometimes 11 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:41,360 Speaker 2: in a more plot oriented fashion. But I was looking 12 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:44,200 Speaker 2: around because I'm like, Okay, if I dive deeper into 13 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:48,760 Speaker 2: written fiction, I'm sure there's some great hardcore Jupiter sci 14 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 2: fi that references the spot. And sure enough, there's a 15 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 2: novella from Let's See nineteen seventy one, I believe the 16 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:03,000 Speaker 2: original version of it published in Playboy magazine, and it's 17 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 2: set in the year twenty fifty. It is titled A 18 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,840 Speaker 2: Meeting with Medusa by the legendary Arthur C. Clark. 19 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, huge jellyfish in the atmosphere of Jupiter. This 20 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 3: is sort of this is an airship story, isn't it 21 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 3: It is? 22 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a This is a pretty famous one. 23 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: I've never read it, which is why it didn't, you know, 24 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 2: come to my mind immediately, and we may have referenced 25 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 2: it on the show in the past, but it was 26 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 2: a big one, was a Nebula Award winner, highly influential tale. 27 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:30,560 Speaker 2: I wish I'd had a chance to read it in 28 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 2: full ahead of our recording, but I did go through 29 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 2: it and look for references to the Great Red Spot, 30 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 2: and there are actually a couple of them. Is kind 31 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 2: of bookended because I believe on the way in our 32 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 2: main character is sort of pining for a visit to 33 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 2: the Great Red Spot, and then later when he leaves, he's, 34 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 2: you know, he feels kind of bittersweet about it and thinks, well, 35 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 2: maybe I'll see it next time. 36 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:55,640 Speaker 3: Now, this is in no way meant as a criticism 37 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 3: of the story, but this did cause me to think, 38 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 3: with the Great Red sp feel like the Great Red 39 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 3: Spot if you were in it instead of looking at 40 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,520 Speaker 3: it from above. You know. Yeah, it's like imagining wanting 41 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 3: to go to an island, because the island is shaped 42 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,639 Speaker 3: like something when seen from orbit, but like when you're 43 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:15,639 Speaker 3: on the island, it wouldn't be shaped that way. You'd 44 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 3: just be on land. 45 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I love the shape of Australia. I really 46 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,119 Speaker 2: want to visit it somedays so I can appreciate its shape. 47 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 3: But then again, I'm sure the Great Red Spot, like 48 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 3: you know, like many things on Jupiter, would be, would 49 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 3: have fascinating local characteristics as well. It just wouldn't be 50 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 3: a Great Red Spot anymore. It would be whatever, I 51 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 3: don't know, winds whipping around you. 52 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,679 Speaker 2: So this, this story can be obtained, I've believe in 53 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 2: at least in one major Arthur C. Clark collection, And certainly 54 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 2: go out and read it and fall right into us 55 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 2: if you have read in full, if you have thoughts 56 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 2: on it. But I want to read one quick passage 57 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 2: from it that references the Great Red Spot. Quote. The 58 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 2: Great Red Spot itself, the most spectacular of all the 59 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 2: planet's features, lay thousands of miles to the south. It 60 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 2: had been a tempte to descend there, but the South 61 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,959 Speaker 2: Tropical Disturbance was unusually active, with currents reaching over nine 62 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 2: hundred miles an hour. It would have been asking for 63 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 2: trouble to head into that maelstrom of unknown forces. The 64 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 2: Great Red Spot and its mysteries would have to wait 65 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 2: for future expeditions. 66 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 3: Wow, what a coincidence. I'm actually going to end up 67 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 3: in this episode talking about the South Tropical disturbance. That's 68 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 3: not a thing made up for the Arthur C. Clark story. 69 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:26,959 Speaker 3: That's a real thing. 70 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's also I mean like how he's acknowledging 71 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:34,679 Speaker 2: the mysteries of the Great Red Spot, because as we've 72 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 2: been discussing, there are plenty of mysteries that still remain about. 73 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 3: It, absolutely aside from any giant jellyfish or manta rays 74 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 3: dwelling there. 75 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 2: Yeah. So we're back to continue our discussion of the 76 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 2: Great Red Spot of Jupiter, a massive storm visible from 77 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 2: Earth by telescope. In the last episode, we discussed the 78 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 2: history of the spots observation in the telescopic age, beginning 79 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 2: in the seventeenth century and then with greatly improved imaging 80 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 2: capabilities in the twentieth century and beyond. We discussed how 81 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 2: the Great Red Storm we know today might not be 82 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:12,120 Speaker 2: the storm that Giovanni Cassini noted in sixteen sixty five, 83 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 2: and how the storm is long lasting compared to terrestrial storms, 84 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 2: but still a temporary atmospheric feature in the life cycle 85 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:21,719 Speaker 2: of a planet, so it won't be there forever but 86 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 2: we don't know when it will go away. 87 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,040 Speaker 3: So regarding the observations in the eighteen hundreds, I don't 88 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 3: recall if this came up in the last episode. You 89 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,479 Speaker 3: can remind me if I've forgotten this, Rob, but I 90 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 3: actually found out that there was a photo, a telescopic 91 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 3: photo of the Great Red Spot taken of Jupiter in 92 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 3: the nineteenth century. It was taken by Irish astronomer Agnes 93 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 3: Mary Clerk in eighteen seventy nine, and Rob I attached 94 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 3: a copy of this black and white photo for you 95 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 3: to look at in the outline. 96 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 2: Here. 97 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 3: You don't get a lot of definition on the various 98 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:56,520 Speaker 3: bands going back and forth like you see in the 99 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 3: good color photos of Jupiter today. Mainly it looks like 100 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 3: one sort of light gray ball with a big dark 101 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 3: stripe in the middle and then just a huge, gigantic 102 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 3: elongated oval on one side of the equatorial stripe. And 103 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 3: apparently at the time this photo was taken, it was 104 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 3: estimated that the Great Red Spot was about forty thousand 105 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 3: kilometers in length, so much bigger and much more elongated 106 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 3: than it is today. That goes with what we were 107 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,039 Speaker 3: saying last time about the Great Red Spot. Shrinking and 108 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,200 Speaker 3: becoming rounder over time, and these observations more than one 109 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,240 Speaker 3: hundred years ago, it was gigantic and it was way 110 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 3: more flattened out. 111 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely look up this eighteen seventy nine photograph if 112 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:43,919 Speaker 2: you have the ability to do so. Let's see. We 113 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 2: also discussed the nature of the storm itself, somewhat an 114 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 2: enormous anticyclone that dwarfs not only any storm we've ever 115 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:53,720 Speaker 2: known on Earth, but the Earth itself. And in this 116 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,599 Speaker 2: episode we're back to discuss more facts, observations, and hypotheses 117 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,720 Speaker 2: concerning the Great Red Spot and the planet calls Home. 118 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 3: So Rob, one of the questions we raised last time 119 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 3: that we didn't really get into was the question of 120 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 3: why the Great Red Spot is red and not some 121 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 3: other color. Of course, though we did briefly allude to 122 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:18,159 Speaker 3: the fact that it's sort of a mix of different areas. Right, 123 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 3: There's an outer ring that's sort of like clear or 124 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 3: white that is sometimes known as the hollow, and then 125 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,479 Speaker 3: inside that you've got the redder or more orange oval. 126 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. We talked about its greatness, but not 127 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 2: its redness so much. I want to discredit a couple 128 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,599 Speaker 2: of hypotheses real quick. First of all, the Great Red 129 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 2: Spot is not the jelly insertion point on a planet 130 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 2: that is, in essence, one gigantic jelly filled donut. I 131 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 2: think this would be a reasonable guess to make, but 132 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 2: it's not true. 133 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:48,600 Speaker 3: Even when you're talking about a real life donut. You 134 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 3: just don't like thinking about the jelly insertion point, don't 135 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 3: You just want to imagine it somehow in there without 136 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 3: a needle. 137 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,280 Speaker 2: You know, it was violently injected. They don't even try 138 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 2: and hide it. That's how you know what's inside, and 139 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 2: maybe they feel like they're doing you a favor. 140 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:05,320 Speaker 3: You get a little peak with the durbble. 141 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's also not, as my child suggested this morning, 142 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,080 Speaker 2: the vast swirlings of trillions upon trillions of tabby cats. 143 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:17,400 Speaker 2: This was their Joe guests. Their serious guests, by the way, 144 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 2: was that it was red tinted chemicals in the Jovian atmosphere, 145 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,560 Speaker 2: which we'll get back to it. That's a pretty good guess. 146 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 2: But as we did talk about in the last episode, yeah, 147 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 2: the Great Red Spot is not entirely one color, and 148 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 2: its overall colorization and contrast has shifted quite a bit. 149 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 2: As we mentioned seventeenth century observations of this or more 150 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 2: likely a previous storm did not know the spot's color, 151 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,240 Speaker 2: as it was not detectable if that color was present. 152 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 2: But by and large, we've seen the following trends in 153 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 2: its overall color, and I got these from a couple 154 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 2: of different sources that we also cited last time. Historical 155 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:00,480 Speaker 2: and contemporary trends in the size drift in color of 156 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 2: Jupiter's Great Red Spot by Simon Etol from twenty eighteen 157 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 2: and colors of Jupiter's large anticyclones and the interaction of 158 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 2: a tropical red oval with the Great Red Spot in 159 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,520 Speaker 2: two thousand and eight by Sanchez Lavega at all, and 160 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 2: I'll look at some more recent observations as well, and 161 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,679 Speaker 2: a couple of other sources. But in nineteen seventy four, 162 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 2: this is when Pioneer one and two went by striking 163 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 2: red colorization twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, there was an intensification, 164 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 2: a deeper orange color twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, further darkening. 165 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 2: And we have to stress that in none of these 166 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 2: cases are we talking about only changes in color, but 167 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 2: also various changes in dimension, intensity, morphology, and brightness. So 168 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 2: a lot of the analysis ends up getting into like, Okay, 169 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 2: we can look at the color and the color intensity, 170 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 2: but then we can attempt to chart out where that 171 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 2: those changes match up with other changes and looking to 172 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 2: why those changes would in fact impact the colorization. The 173 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 2: paper by Simon at All points out some of these 174 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 2: following facts I want to run through. They write that 175 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 2: the grs's color changes from twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen 176 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 2: may be explained by changes and stretching of vorticity or 177 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 2: divergence acting to balance the decrease in relative vorticity. Historically, 178 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 2: they point out, intensity of the Great Red Spot's color 179 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 2: appeared to be somewhat correlated with motion. The color was 180 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 2: more intense or it was darkest when it accelerated. Color 181 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,560 Speaker 2: and drift rate also historically seemed to correlate. 182 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:38,240 Speaker 3: Oh that's interesting. So it seems to be shifting to 183 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 3: the red when the winds are moving faster. 184 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my understanding of it here. But one of 185 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 2: the big things that they drive home is that correlating 186 00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 2: the Great Red Spot's color changes with an actual physical 187 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 2: mechanism is really challenging, and so a lot of the 188 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:56,559 Speaker 2: work in these papers seems to really get into that 189 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 2: and come up with various hypotheses as to how this 190 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 2: could be occurring. They point out that drift rate slash 191 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:09,240 Speaker 2: motion doesn't present an obvious physical mechanism other than possibly 192 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 2: via cloud ingestion rate. They say that vortex stretching, this 193 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:17,160 Speaker 2: is the lengthening of vortices in three dimensional fluid flow, 194 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:20,960 Speaker 2: is a possible physical mechanism. And they also point out 195 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 2: that the most recent at the time twenty fourteen through 196 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,719 Speaker 2: twenty seventeen changes in internal cloud morphology and color might 197 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 2: have been due to changes in divergence, internal vorticity, and 198 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,320 Speaker 2: vortex stretching, rather than being correlated to its drift rate. Now, 199 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 2: some of that may just wash past you, and I 200 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 2: do want to acknowledge well, first of all, that this 201 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:43,800 Speaker 2: is a very complex topic and I'm just going to 202 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,560 Speaker 2: attempting to do my best to relate the basics of 203 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,600 Speaker 2: it here. But also I have to acknowledge that everything 204 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,120 Speaker 2: I just said didn't really answer the question of why 205 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,960 Speaker 2: is it red or why is it orange or rust colored? Like? 206 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 2: What is the redness? Like? What are we looking at? 207 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 2: And discussion of this topic is complex, it seems far 208 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,679 Speaker 2: from settled, but it all a lot of it anyway, 209 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 2: as far as I can understand, revolves around candidates for 210 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 2: the underlying chromophores, so the underlying particles that produce a 211 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 2: given color, sometimes collectively with other chromophors in general, talking 212 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 2: about in general about chromophors function and create colors that 213 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,160 Speaker 2: we sense. But in the case of the Great Red Spot, 214 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 2: we're also considering all of this in light of the 215 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 2: aforementioned interactions going on in the storm, including especially how 216 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 2: high up into the atmosphere these particles are pushed. Now, 217 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 2: one there's a particular NASA JPL scientist who is the 218 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 2: lead author and sometimes I think maybe the supporting author 219 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,840 Speaker 2: on a lot of papers about this, and it's a 220 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 2: man by the name of Robert A. West. The particular 221 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 2: one I was looking at here is Jovian Clouds and 222 00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 2: Haze by West, Bains, and Friedson. And in this paper 223 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 2: they present a whole list of both organic and inorganic 224 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 2: chromophore candidates for the Great Red Spot that had been 225 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,520 Speaker 2: proposed over the years by that point. So they're compiling 226 00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:17,840 Speaker 2: them from different different papers, different scientists and so forth. 227 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 2: I'm not going to include them all, but they include 228 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:25,360 Speaker 2: the likes of hydrazine and white phosphorus on the inorganic side, 229 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:30,079 Speaker 2: and on the organic side, the list includes the likes 230 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 2: of acetylene, photopolymers, proton irradiated H four plus NH three 231 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 2: that's methane plus ammonia, and even biota living organisms. And 232 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,000 Speaker 2: the paper that they're citing for this idea was a 233 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:47,240 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six paper by Carl Sagan and Edwin Salpeter 234 00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:51,560 Speaker 2: who speculated on the possibility of not only life on Jupiter, 235 00:12:51,679 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 2: but a Jovian ecology. 236 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 3: Okay, so this is in speculation mode, not to say 237 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 3: that we have good reason to think that the red 238 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 3: colors would be caused by living organisms, but like, what 239 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 3: if they were caused that way. We know that say, 240 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,520 Speaker 3: blooms of algae in the Earth, in the Earth's oceans 241 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:11,520 Speaker 3: can change the color of the oceans. You can have 242 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,319 Speaker 3: various reasons that micro organisms change the color of a 243 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:18,679 Speaker 3: landscape feature. So what if that's what's happening in the 244 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 3: atmosphere of Jupiter. 245 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm glad you mentioned the oceans, because that's 246 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 2: one of the main things that Sagan and Saltpeter are 247 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,120 Speaker 2: referencing and sort of using as a model. And it's 248 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,720 Speaker 2: a very in depth paper. It's not a general audience 249 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 2: specific paper, but I want to read a quick quote 250 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 2: from it here. Quote we have in this discussion made 251 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,760 Speaker 2: no distinction among various locales on Jupiter. But it is 252 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:46,120 Speaker 2: clear that some locals, the Great Red Spot, for example, 253 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 2: may be more favored than others because of higher abundances 254 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 2: of organic molecules prevailing up drafts for other reasons. So yeah, 255 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 2: to be clear, I don't believe this is a widely 256 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 2: held candidate for a play in our solar system where 257 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 2: you could find extraterrestrial life. Like It's not like a 258 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:08,360 Speaker 2: best case scenario, but in the paper is quite interesting 259 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 2: and in it they outline how they believe Jupiter's atmosphere 260 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 2: could feature quote ecological niches for sinkers, floaters, and hunters, 261 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 2: and they explore the possibility that such life forms could 262 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 2: exist at different stages of development in all three niches. 263 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 2: So a sinker in this scenario would be a primary 264 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 2: photosynthetic autotroph that reproduces as it passively sinks down through 265 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 2: the atmosphere among its kinds. So comparable to like plankton 266 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:39,000 Speaker 2: in Earth's oceans. 267 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 3: Okay, so getting getting energy from the sun, making its 268 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,840 Speaker 3: food that way and then sinking down passively through the atmosphere. 269 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 2: Right, and then the floaters would be autotrophic or heterotrophic 270 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 2: organisms that float via some manner of inflated bladder. So 271 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,400 Speaker 2: these would be your space jellies, and they would eat 272 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:03,120 Speaker 2: the sinkers or and or they would depend on on 273 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 2: solar energy as well. Okay, and then the hunter would 274 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 2: be the next step, a predator jellyfish type creature that 275 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,640 Speaker 2: hunts on the floaters, or maybe it's a Manda ray. 276 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 2: You know, you can sort of go wild with the 277 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 2: imagination here. 278 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 3: Big crab with a bunch of balloons attached to it. 279 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the kind of thing you see depicted. 280 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 2: And they point out that if this were the case, 281 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,800 Speaker 2: and again this is all speculation, they were just you know, 282 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:30,680 Speaker 2: it's like, what if, and how would it work? If 283 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,080 Speaker 2: they say that, there would be clear there would be 284 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 2: clear evolutionary lines to connect between these different forms. And 285 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,320 Speaker 2: another thing that's interesting is, you know, this is exactly 286 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 2: the line of thinking that Arthur C. Clark employed in his 287 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 2: in that earlier novella that we cited, though of course, 288 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 2: his vision, being a sci fi tale published in Playboy, 289 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:54,920 Speaker 2: obviously lacked the scientific rigor presented in the Sag and 290 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 2: Saltpeter paper here. 291 00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, though, of course Clark was quite concerned in anyways 292 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 3: with plausibility. But he's also just trying to tell a 293 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 3: good story. 294 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 2: Right, and not really featuring a lot of equations. Yeah yeah, 295 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 2: so yeah, no shade at Arthur C. Clark at all here. 296 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,080 Speaker 2: So as interesting as all this is the more accepted 297 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:28,320 Speaker 2: theories for red chromophores in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, 298 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 2: they're not based on the idea that there's life in there. 299 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,320 Speaker 2: We still don't have a firm answer. But I wanted 300 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,320 Speaker 2: to discuss at least one of the more recent ideas 301 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 2: that seems to have gotten a lot of attention. So 302 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,800 Speaker 2: there was one from twenty fourteen. This was an idea 303 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 2: presented by Kevin Baines, a NASA Cassini team scientist, and 304 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 2: he proposed that what we're broadly seeing is perhaps a 305 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:57,240 Speaker 2: mixture of ammonia and acetylene gases blasted by solar energy 306 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,480 Speaker 2: in the high upper reaches of the Great Red Spot. 307 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:03,320 Speaker 2: So we mentioned in the last episode that the Great 308 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 2: Red Spot is pretty deep, it goes pretty deep down, 309 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 2: But I don't know if we really talked about how 310 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 2: high up it goes. I've read that the Great Red 311 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 2: Spot may extend something like eight kilometers or five miles 312 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 2: above the surrounding cloud tops in Jupiter's atmosphere. So the 313 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 2: idea here is that it's pushing its contents up higher 314 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:27,520 Speaker 2: in the atmosphere than the surrounding areas and in doing 315 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:32,720 Speaker 2: so subjecting them to greater solar interference, greater solar UV light, 316 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:37,280 Speaker 2: and laboratory results have apparently indicated that this is possible. 317 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 2: So the idea here is that we have these chromophores, 318 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 2: these ammonium and settling gases that are not already red 319 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,359 Speaker 2: in color, but they are shot up high enough that 320 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,679 Speaker 2: they are exposed to more UV light, more solar radiation, 321 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 2: and that is what generates the color that we see 322 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 2: as the Great Red Spot. Okay, if this hypothesis is correct, 323 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,879 Speaker 2: it would mean that the Great Red Spot is not 324 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:08,679 Speaker 2: like red all the way down. It would just be 325 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,840 Speaker 2: red more or less at the surface, something that you 326 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 2: see compared in some of the science journalism, especially to 327 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:15,840 Speaker 2: a sunburn. 328 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:19,240 Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so I saw this. I saw articles describing 329 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:23,840 Speaker 3: the sunburn hypothesis of the redness, though a different mechanism 330 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:25,680 Speaker 3: obviously than like inflamed skin. 331 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 2: But yeah, but skin deep, I guess is the metaphor 332 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,119 Speaker 2: you could use here. Now. To be clear, there are 333 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 2: other competing hypotheses in which in which it wouldn't be 334 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,640 Speaker 2: just gray or white underneath, it would be like red 335 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 2: all the way down. These competing hypotheses still envision some 336 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:49,000 Speaker 2: model in which there are red chromophores that are pushed 337 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 2: up through the storm from greater depths, but they're red 338 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:53,280 Speaker 2: in color within the storm as well as at the 339 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:58,399 Speaker 2: upper surface. So again, yeah, it's a complex topic, getting 340 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,480 Speaker 2: like it's so red eyes, it's so red. Well, we 341 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,119 Speaker 2: don't know for sure, but we have some very interesting 342 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,880 Speaker 2: hypotheses as to why, some definitely more believable and likely 343 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,720 Speaker 2: than others. But that makes that I do love the 344 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:13,639 Speaker 2: idea that, hey, what if it's read because it's just 345 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:15,439 Speaker 2: full of life? That would be crazy. 346 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:18,359 Speaker 3: Yeah, what if we're looking at algol blooms and certain 347 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:19,680 Speaker 3: bands all on the surface. 348 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, in a way, it's really it's the more exciting. Well, 349 00:19:23,119 --> 00:19:24,919 Speaker 2: I mean, I think all these ideas are exciting, but 350 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 2: you can you can imagine where that idea would maybe 351 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:31,440 Speaker 2: be that nice mix of exciting and accessible to the 352 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:35,120 Speaker 2: average person. But yeah, I don't think that's what's going 353 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 2: on there. 354 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:38,399 Speaker 3: So I wanted to come back to a question we 355 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:43,080 Speaker 3: raised in the last episode. We established last time that 356 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,560 Speaker 3: the great red Spot of today, at least according to 357 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:51,679 Speaker 3: most informed observers, is probably not the same red spot 358 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 3: seen by astronomers like Giovanni Cassini in the seventeenth century. 359 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,360 Speaker 3: You know, we talked about him. He saw a spot 360 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:02,200 Speaker 3: in the sixteen sixties. But it's probably not the same 361 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 3: one for a number of reasons, one of which is 362 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:08,360 Speaker 3: that astronomers stopped seeing the spot for like many decades. 363 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:11,760 Speaker 3: It seems like suddenly, like in the seventeen hundreds, people 364 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 3: are not seeing this thing anymore. And it seems like 365 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,960 Speaker 3: astronomers don't know a giant red spot again until about 366 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,919 Speaker 3: eighteen thirty one. So that seems quite implausible if it 367 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,320 Speaker 3: was the same spot and it was there the whole time. 368 00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, otherwise people would clearly keep describing it. It's pretty exciting, 369 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:28,879 Speaker 2: you know. 370 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,639 Speaker 3: So it's very unlikely that it's the same spot astronomers 371 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:38,000 Speaker 3: saw in the seventeenth century. But that suggests that storms 372 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 3: like this come and go. And if they come and go, 373 00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:43,919 Speaker 3: where do they come from how did the current spot 374 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,200 Speaker 3: arise in the first place. Now, in twenty twenty four, 375 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,879 Speaker 3: there was a bunch of reporting about the origin of 376 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,600 Speaker 3: the Great Red Spot based on the publication of a 377 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:56,439 Speaker 3: scientific paper that we did mention in part one of 378 00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 3: this series, but I'm going to give the full citation here. 379 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:03,119 Speaker 3: The paper is called the Origin of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, 380 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 3: and it was by a group of authors, the first 381 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:08,360 Speaker 3: author of which we actually just mentioned another paper by 382 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 3: them a moment ago, but anyway, it's by Augustine Sanchez 383 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:17,639 Speaker 3: la Vega, Enrique Garcia Melando, John Legereta, Arnew, Miro Menel 384 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,440 Speaker 3: Soria and Kevin Arenz Velasquez. This was published in Geophysical 385 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 3: Research Letters in twenty twenty four, and the authors of 386 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 3: this paper were based, I believe, all in Spain at 387 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,440 Speaker 3: several different institutions like the University of the Basque Country 388 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 3: and Polytechnic University of Catalonia. And in addition to this paper, 389 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,639 Speaker 3: I relied on some explanation and analysis from several articles, 390 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 3: especially one in Scientific American by the astronomer and science 391 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:49,000 Speaker 3: communicator Phil Plait that was from July twenty twenty four. Now, 392 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,919 Speaker 3: before I get into the details about this discovery. I 393 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,399 Speaker 3: did want to mention a bit of background about the 394 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,280 Speaker 3: structure of Jupiter in its atmosphere because that kind of 395 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,600 Speaker 3: informs this research. So a few things about the structure 396 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 3: of Jupiter we didn't quite get into yet. Jupiter is 397 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:08,280 Speaker 3: made mostly of the same thing the Sun is made of, 398 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 3: actually of hydrogen and helium, and so if you're going 399 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 3: from the outside in, Jupiter has a vast layer of 400 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 3: atmospheric gas, again dominated by hydrogen and helium, along with 401 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 3: small amounts of other stuff like water, methane and ammonia, 402 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 3: and some hydrocarbons like benzene, and then beneath that you 403 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,480 Speaker 3: keep going down and the pressure eventually becomes so great 404 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,840 Speaker 3: that the hydrogen takes a liquid form, and you will 405 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,960 Speaker 3: have a planet wide ocean of liquid hydrogen. So that 406 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,959 Speaker 3: makes it the runaway winner for the largest ocean in 407 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,080 Speaker 3: the Solar System. Though one thing that's worth noting is 408 00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 3: that the boundaries between these layers are not sharp. Instead, 409 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,199 Speaker 3: they gradually bleed into one another. So falling through the 410 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 3: atmosphere of Jupiter into its global ocean would not be 411 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 3: like falling through the atmosphere of Earth and then suddenly 412 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 3: hitting the surface of the water where the smack. Instead, 413 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 3: you would be continually sinking through a thick hot hydrogen 414 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 3: helium stew of increasing density and heat as you go down, 415 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,480 Speaker 3: which eventually becomes fully liquid. And then, of course, if 416 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:18,440 Speaker 3: you keep going down from their conditions change further further 417 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 3: into the liquid hydrogen ocean, you reach a layer of 418 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:26,600 Speaker 3: what scientists call liquid metallic hydrogen. At this point, the 419 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,680 Speaker 3: pressure is so extreme that electrons pop off of the 420 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 3: hydrogen atoms. So normally a hydrogen atom is one proton 421 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:39,199 Speaker 3: and one electron. Here the electrons get squeezed off of 422 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,719 Speaker 3: these atomic nuclei and they can flow unrestrained through the fluid, 423 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:48,640 Speaker 3: making it extremely electrically conductive like a metal, which actually 424 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:53,119 Speaker 3: creates the dynamo effect that scientists think is responsible for 425 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 3: generating Jupiter's magnetic field. So this metallic hydrogen layer is 426 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,200 Speaker 3: also known as the inner mantle, and it takes up 427 00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:04,920 Speaker 3: most of the planet's radius. If you measure the diameter 428 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 3: of Jupiter, most of it is this metallic hydrogen layer, 429 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 3: and then even deeper than that, the mantle is thought 430 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 3: to graduate into a loose core made of denser materials, 431 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 3: maybe some rocky icy solids leftover from the planet's early formation. 432 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,679 Speaker 3: But there's still a bunch of unanswered questions about exactly 433 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 3: what the core is made of and how it is structured. 434 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,680 Speaker 3: This was one of the issues that NASA's Junomission was investigating. 435 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 3: But anyway, when you look at the composition of the 436 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,399 Speaker 3: planet like this, it makes me think about how in 437 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,240 Speaker 3: the previous episode, probably a bunch of times I was 438 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 3: saying stuff about the surface features of Jupiter. I was 439 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:47,439 Speaker 3: talking about the red spot and other things you can 440 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,359 Speaker 3: see this way, But of course Jupiter does not actually 441 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,760 Speaker 3: have a surface. What we're describing when we talk about 442 00:24:55,760 --> 00:25:01,400 Speaker 3: its surface are, in reality, patterns of clouds at the 443 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 3: top of Jupiter's atmosphere. 444 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 2: I mean, it even gets complicated when we start talking 445 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,440 Speaker 2: about the surface of Earth because this we've talked about 446 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 2: in our discussions of the deep ocean. You know, it's like, 447 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 2: I mean, technically the deep ocean, if if you're at 448 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 2: the bottom of the sea, you're standing on the rocky 449 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 2: surface of the planet. So you know, it's like our 450 00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 2: world's kind of weird. And then we we equate everything 451 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,480 Speaker 2: to the slim layer of the atmosphere in which we 452 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 2: can live, so Yeah, what do we mean by surface 453 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 2: with a planet anyway? 454 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. I mean often it gets into a question 455 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:37,480 Speaker 3: of definition. It's not as clear as you thought, what 456 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 3: do you mean by surface? And a lot of times 457 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,200 Speaker 3: what we mean when we're just talking casually is what's 458 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,360 Speaker 3: the part of the planet I can see from space? 459 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:49,879 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, how would like balloon based floating organisms judge 460 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,240 Speaker 2: life on Earth? Like we would all be considered like 461 00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 2: bottom dwellers or something. Yeah. 462 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, So anyway, another thing that's important to understand about 463 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 3: the structure of Jupiter, if you're going to get into 464 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,879 Speaker 3: the origins of the Great Red Spot, is the planet's 465 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:10,119 Speaker 3: zonal striping pattern. Jupiter has these lateral bands going parallel 466 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,679 Speaker 3: to its equator. You've got dark stripes mostly red and 467 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,480 Speaker 3: orange in color from our perspective at least, and white 468 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,560 Speaker 3: or light colored stripes. These are known as belts and zones, respectively. 469 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,320 Speaker 3: The dark stripes are the belts and the light stripes 470 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 3: are the zones. Jupiter generates a lot of internal heat. 471 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,240 Speaker 3: The majority of the heat in Earth's atmosphere comes from 472 00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:37,280 Speaker 3: the Sun comes down from above, but the majority of 473 00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:42,880 Speaker 3: heat in Jupiter's atmosphere actually comes from deep within Jupiter itself, 474 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,239 Speaker 3: it's getting more heat from inside than from outside, So 475 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 3: the superheated lower strata of Jupiter's atmosphere and the liquid 476 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:57,960 Speaker 3: hydrogen level these fluids create convection currents as the heat 477 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 3: wants to rise, so hotid rises up through low pressure 478 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,280 Speaker 3: areas of the atmosphere all the way up to the top, 479 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,399 Speaker 3: and then it cools, circulates, and sinks back down again 480 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 3: in higher pressure areas. Actually similar to what happens with 481 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:18,320 Speaker 3: air circulation patterns on Earth, but the gas giants are 482 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 3: larger than the inner planets and they rotate faster. A 483 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:26,400 Speaker 3: day on Jupiter is only nine point nine hours, so 484 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:32,600 Speaker 3: this extremely fast rotation causes a pronounced Coriolis effect, which 485 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,159 Speaker 3: we talked about last time in the context of Earth. 486 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 3: Jupiter's Coriolis effect is more extreme than Earth's because Jupiter 487 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 3: is larger and spinning faster, and this pronounced Coriolis effect 488 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:52,640 Speaker 3: creates powerful jet streams running parallel to Jupiter's equator. These 489 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 3: jet streams form the boundaries of Jupiter's belts and zones. 490 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 3: So each zone, remember the light colored areas, Each zone 491 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,679 Speaker 3: tends to be a basically low pressured area. There's some 492 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:09,919 Speaker 3: variation in pressure at different altitudes. But basically, a zone 493 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,280 Speaker 3: is a low pressure area where warm fluid rises up 494 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,959 Speaker 3: through the atmosphere and it is bounded on each side 495 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,040 Speaker 3: by jet streams, with an east running jet on the 496 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 3: side facing the pole and a west running jet on 497 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 3: the side facing the equator. Belts are the inverse. You've 498 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 3: got high pressure areas again, generally where cool material sinks 499 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,560 Speaker 3: back down into the atmosphere, where the side facing the 500 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,440 Speaker 3: pole is bounded by a west flowing jet and the 501 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 3: side facing the equator has an eastward jet. Now what 502 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:47,400 Speaker 3: determines the color differences in these different bands, again, we 503 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 3: don't know for sure. One big idea is that the 504 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,000 Speaker 3: zones are bright because the clouds up high in altitude, 505 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:58,680 Speaker 3: the first thing we see from the outside contain crystals 506 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,080 Speaker 3: of ammonia ice, which look white, and the belts have 507 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,880 Speaker 3: thinner ice clouds with less ammonia ice, so instead we 508 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 3: see other things. We see a brown, red, or orange color, 509 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,880 Speaker 3: which could be caused by different chemicals the chromophores you 510 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 3: were talking about. It's maybe it's caused by sunburn like 511 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 3: you mentioned, or maybe by the presence of hydrocarbons. We 512 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,120 Speaker 3: don't really know for sure, but it does seem like 513 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,000 Speaker 3: the white color of the zones is probably due to 514 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 3: the ammonia ice clouds. 515 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,200 Speaker 2: Little known fact, ammonia ice is the most popular alcoholic 516 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,320 Speaker 2: beverage on the planet Jupiter. Crack one open today. 517 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 3: The jellyfish frat boys, they like the ami ice, the 518 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,120 Speaker 3: ami ice and the amy light. Oh but if you're 519 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 3: a jellyfish, you can't open it with your teeth or 520 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 3: your belt buckle, no hard parts anywhere, or how do 521 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:47,320 Speaker 3: you get it open. 522 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 2: There's going to have to be a whole nother paper 523 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:50,880 Speaker 2: just on this topic. 524 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 3: But anyway, coming back to the Great Red Spot itself, now, 525 00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 3: we've already talked again about the idea that the current 526 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,760 Speaker 3: great red spot that we see today has definitely existed 527 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 3: for more than one hundred and ninety years. It was 528 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 3: seen and described in eighteen thirty one. We have strong 529 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,880 Speaker 3: reason for believing it was not the same spot Cassini 530 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 3: saw in the sixteen sixties. So how did it form? 531 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,160 Speaker 3: The study I mentioned by Sanchez la Vega at all 532 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 3: used a combination of historical observations beginning in the sixteen hundreds, 533 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,080 Speaker 3: So like drawings made by astronomers throughout the years and 534 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:46,360 Speaker 3: descriptions that they left, as well as modern numerical modeling 535 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,120 Speaker 3: of the storm to answer the question of how it 536 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,240 Speaker 3: formed and to answer the question of whether it was 537 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 3: the same spot. But we've already answered that one. No, 538 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,200 Speaker 3: it's almost certainly not the same spot. But coming to 539 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 3: the question of how it formed, they tested three potential 540 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:06,200 Speaker 3: explanations to see which one would lead to the formation 541 00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 3: of a giant anti cyclone storm like the Great Red 542 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,600 Speaker 3: Spot in their simulation. So we'll look at these three 543 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:17,000 Speaker 3: different hypotheses they explored one at a time. One of 544 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 3: them is that it was created by the merging of 545 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 3: two or more smaller storms or smaller vortices. This can 546 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 3: and does happen frequently on Jupiter, at least they can 547 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 3: merge together. But when the authors ran the simulation here, 548 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:38,440 Speaker 3: they found that merging these smaller vortices did not produce 549 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,920 Speaker 3: a storm matching the Great Red Spot. Essentially, even if 550 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,960 Speaker 3: you kept adding more and more smaller input storms, I 551 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 3: think they said, like four or five of them, you 552 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,760 Speaker 3: still did not get a system as big as the 553 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 3: early observations of the GRS. Also, this doesn't match because 554 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:58,719 Speaker 3: the multiple smaller storms needed were also not mentioned by 555 00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 3: astronomers before eight thirty one, and the authors think they 556 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 3: would have been easy enough to see that somebody probably 557 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,719 Speaker 3: would have noted them, so the merging of smaller vortices 558 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,720 Speaker 3: that probably did not create it. Another idea is what 559 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,480 Speaker 3: about a superstorm or megastorm. This would be caused by 560 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 3: an eruption of warmer material, warmer matter from lower down 561 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:28,240 Speaker 3: in in Jupiter, in Jupiter's atmosphere and that welling up 562 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:32,120 Speaker 3: into the upper atmosphere and causing a storm. We do 563 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,600 Speaker 3: see things happen like this on other gas giants, like 564 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:40,479 Speaker 3: on Saturn. Saturn apparently has recurring megastorms that appear roughly 565 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 3: once between every twenty and thirty years, typically when it 566 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 3: is summer in Saturn's northern hemisphere. The cause of these 567 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,360 Speaker 3: storms is not fully understood, but if you want to 568 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 3: see examples of this, you can look up images that 569 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 3: the Cassini probe took in December twenty ten, or actually 570 00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 3: the images might have been from later, maybe from two 571 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,640 Speaker 3: thousand and eleven, but it was of a storm that 572 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:09,400 Speaker 3: emerged in the northern hemisphere of Saturn in December twenty ten. 573 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,000 Speaker 3: You might have seen this before. It almost looks kind 574 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 3: of like a big, I don't know, milky white cloud 575 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,920 Speaker 3: sort of billowing through like a long a latitudinal line 576 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 3: along the northern half of Saturn. I don't know how 577 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 3: else to describe it, as like, you know, somebody took 578 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 3: a kind of milk straw and moved it through the 579 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 3: through the yellow. 580 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,840 Speaker 2: I have to say that the images of the superstorm 581 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 2: on Saturn, it looks very chill. It's very on brand 582 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:37,160 Speaker 2: for Saturn, I guess. But everything with Saturn always feels 583 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 2: kind of serene, and everything with Jupiter feels like intimidating 584 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:42,560 Speaker 2: and a bit chaotic. 585 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:47,280 Speaker 3: Somehow, I couldn't agree more. Yeah, Saturn almost Saturn nine 586 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 3: in character. There you go, so the author is considered 587 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 3: it plausible. This could be an explanation of what's happening 588 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:54,880 Speaker 3: on Jupiter as well. Yeah, like maybe some kind of 589 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,840 Speaker 3: warmer material is there's a convective current that's bringing up 590 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 3: this warmer material from below and it's creating a storm. 591 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:06,720 Speaker 3: They did find that an upwelling like this could create 592 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,319 Speaker 3: a large anti cyclonic storm, but again it was not 593 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,759 Speaker 3: big enough to explain the early observations of the Great 594 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,680 Speaker 3: Red Spot. It didn't create a system the size and 595 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:22,319 Speaker 3: shape of those early sightings. Also, Jupiter has not been 596 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:26,799 Speaker 3: observed to form superstorms of this kind at the near 597 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:30,520 Speaker 3: equatorial latitude of the Great Red Spot. But then you 598 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,279 Speaker 3: get to the final idea they tested for where this 599 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,279 Speaker 3: could have come from, and this is what is known 600 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:40,200 Speaker 3: as the South tropical disturbance. Bringing us back to Arthur C. Clark, 601 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:45,400 Speaker 3: this would be a kind of unstable wind situation. So 602 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:51,200 Speaker 3: this happens when the boundary between two of Jupiter's adjacent 603 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:56,399 Speaker 3: bands becomes unstable, and essentially a jet of wind from 604 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 3: one band pushes up into the normal lattitud tudes of 605 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:04,440 Speaker 3: another band. This of course disrupts the flow of the 606 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,400 Speaker 3: target band and it creates a vortex, a swirling wind 607 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,680 Speaker 3: pattern instead of the straight flowing wind pattern, and in 608 00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:16,920 Speaker 3: this case the resulting vortex can become huge. And the 609 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:21,160 Speaker 3: simulation of this hypothesis found that yes, indeed, it could 610 00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 3: produce a vortex matching the size and the original shape 611 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,840 Speaker 3: of the Great Red Spot as seen in the nineteenth century. 612 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 3: They also found that this wind mechanism could explain the 613 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:36,000 Speaker 3: changes in size and shape of the GRS over time, 614 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,840 Speaker 3: and so the authors conclude this is most likely how 615 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,800 Speaker 3: the Great Red Spot formed. It was from this unstable 616 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:47,760 Speaker 3: wind wind condition, the south tropical disturbance, the wind flowing 617 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 3: from one band into the other and then creating this 618 00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,239 Speaker 3: giant vortex that was self sustaining and has been self 619 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:56,640 Speaker 3: sustaining now for more than one hundred ninety years I 620 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,319 Speaker 3: think one hundred and ninety four years today, is that right? 621 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 3: Something like that anyway, But this brings us back to 622 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:08,399 Speaker 3: the question that we've already addressed before. Can we use 623 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:12,960 Speaker 3: this information to judge how long it will last? Probably 624 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 3: not really. It has been shrinking for years, especially in 625 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,000 Speaker 3: the last decade and a half it seems to have 626 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,680 Speaker 3: been shrinking. Maybe it will disappear in the near future, 627 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,279 Speaker 3: but as we've said several times now, we just don't 628 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:28,240 Speaker 3: have enough information or understanding to make a firm prediction. 629 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,319 Speaker 3: Maybe it will last a long time, yet we don't 630 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:30,680 Speaker 3: really know. 631 00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,280 Speaker 2: The big question, Joe is will it still be there 632 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:38,439 Speaker 2: in the year twenty four to one, Because in the 633 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,799 Speaker 2: series finale of Star Trek Picard, that is when we 634 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,600 Speaker 2: see a massive borg cube ship hide in and then 635 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 2: emerge from the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. 636 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,759 Speaker 3: I have multiple questions about that. Why is that a 637 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:53,720 Speaker 3: good place to hide. 638 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 2: Well, it's the last place you'd think, right. 639 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,280 Speaker 3: Oh wait, do they not have cloaking? 640 00:36:58,520 --> 00:36:59,000 Speaker 2: Do I do? 641 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 3: I forget how cloaking works. 642 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:03,000 Speaker 2: Uh, you know there is cloaking, but I don't remember 643 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,279 Speaker 2: if the boards have cloaking or maybe you know, you 644 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 2: could see through the cloaking. You know, maybe they're just 645 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:09,840 Speaker 2: being dramatic. I'm not sure. 646 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:12,799 Speaker 3: Maybe they got to power up, they got to get 647 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 3: some of that red red stuff. 648 00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 2: You know, this is there. This is still part of 649 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 2: that era where they're ruled by a queen as opposed 650 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,759 Speaker 2: to just being a complete like cyborg communist collective. So yeah, 651 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,160 Speaker 2: you know, it's possible that they could make choices purely 652 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,520 Speaker 2: for dramatic purposes. 653 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,319 Speaker 3: Okay, so red, the red spot, it's it's part of 654 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 3: the queen's pomp and circumstance. 655 00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. 656 00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 3: Well, actually I do have a good answer to that question, 657 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,000 Speaker 3: believe it or not. So we don't know if the 658 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 3: red spot will still be there. It seems to be shrinking. 659 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,280 Speaker 3: Maybe it'd be gone by then, but since previous giant 660 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:49,120 Speaker 3: spots have disappeared and new ones have appeared, if we 661 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,040 Speaker 3: lose the current great Red Spot, it may well be 662 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,840 Speaker 3: replaced by another spot, maybe much like the original, or 663 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:56,960 Speaker 3: like the one we have. 664 00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:58,520 Speaker 2: Now, that's right, that's right. 665 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,120 Speaker 3: Great red spots come, great Red spots go, But I 666 00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:03,759 Speaker 3: don't know if they're ever a good place to park 667 00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:04,359 Speaker 3: a space ship. 668 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,120 Speaker 2: Well, this is a fun couple of episodes put together here, 669 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:13,319 Speaker 2: and I'd love to hear from everyone out there in 670 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,239 Speaker 2: general about the science we've been discussing here, but also 671 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 2: about this the sci fi flavor. Places where Jupiter's Great 672 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:22,920 Speaker 2: Red Spot has popped up certainly as a backdrop, but 673 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,440 Speaker 2: I'm also interested in times where it may be a 674 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,000 Speaker 2: setting or a location. In addition to the two examples 675 00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,279 Speaker 2: we've brought up here, just a reminder for everyone that's 676 00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 2: stuff to blow your mind. Is primarily a science and 677 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,800 Speaker 2: culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short 678 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 2: form episodes on Wednesdays and on Fridays. We set aside 679 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,080 Speaker 2: most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film 680 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:46,719 Speaker 2: on Weird House Cinema. If you want to follow us online, 681 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,600 Speaker 2: while we're on Instagram, we are stvym podcast over there. 682 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:52,720 Speaker 2: We're on a few other social media accounts as well. 683 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 2: We are a weird house on letterboxed and oh yeah, 684 00:38:57,239 --> 00:38:59,120 Speaker 2: we have a discord. If you'd like to join that 685 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,360 Speaker 2: discord server, well, you can just email us at the 686 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:04,120 Speaker 2: email address we're going to share in just a minute here. 687 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:08,280 Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 688 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:10,279 Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us 689 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:12,760 Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 690 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:14,800 Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 691 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,520 Speaker 3: you can email us at contact Stuff to Blow your 692 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:26,120 Speaker 3: Mind dot com. 693 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,239 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 694 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,120 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 695 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:49,200 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.