The Great Red Spot May Expose Jupiter's Watery Secret

[Judi Lynn]

BY IAN O'NEILL SEP 7, 2018



This close-up shows swirling clouds around Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot where scientists trained telescopes to learn more
about the planet's water situation. NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER. IMAGES COURTESY OF NASA/JPL

Many mysteries hide beneath Jupiter's beautifully chaotic clouds, but with the help of some clever astronomical techniques and NASA's Juno spacecraft, one of the giant planet's biggest puzzles may be closer to being solved.

As we know, water is the key to life on Earth. Our efforts to seek out life on other worlds hinges on the detection of this important compound. Though scientists don't think that life inhabits Jupiter, finding a Jovian reservoir is one of the most pressing issues in planetary science. Locating this water will help us understand how the solar system, and Jupiter itself, evolved. Unfortunately, Jupiter has been notoriously bad at revealing any water deep in its thick atmosphere, leaving scientists and their models of planetary formation high and dry.

Before we sent spacecraft to investigate Jupiter, scientists assumed the gas giant would contain copious amounts of H2O. The logic was simple: Earth is covered in the wet stuff, and there's lots of water in the various moons that orbit the giant planets. Therefore, Jupiter, the most massive and most gravitationally dominant planet in the solar system, must have trapped the lion's share of the solar system's water as it formed billions of years ago.

That logic was shattered in 1995 when NASA's Galileo mission dropped a probe into the planet's atmosphere to measure its composition. Much to everyone's surprise, there was an astonishing lack of water. As it turns out, the Galileo probe may not have detected water simply because it was dropped in the wrong place. It's as if the probe parachuted over a desert on Earth. It's not that there's no water on our planet, it's just that deserts aren't known for being awash with the stuff. Jupiter's atmosphere is dynamic, with jet streams, storms and a nonhomogeneous composition; the probe could only sample the atmosphere it was traveling through in that one location – and that location might've been as dry as a desert.

More:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/great-red-spot-may-expose-jupiters-watery-secret.htm

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Fascinating. Slowly but surely the solar system is giving up its secrets.