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Driverless cars seem to have fewer accidents than human drivers under routine conditions, but higher crash risks when turning or in dim light – although researchers say more accident data is necessary

There are many scary claims about excess time on digital devices for children and teenagers. Here’s a guide to the real risks - and what to do about them

Telo-seq -- a new tool -- is bringing telomere science into its modern era. Scientists can finally explore questions about the role of telomeres in aging and cancer that were not accessible with previous methods. The findings will inspire novel telomere-targeting therapeutics for aging-related diseases.

Opera singers have to use the extreme limits of their voice range. Many pedagogical and scientific sources suggest that the highest pitches reached in classical singing can only be produced with a so-called 'whistle' voice register, in analogy to ultrasonic vocalizations of mice and rats. An international research team has now rejected this assumption. In their study, the scientists showed that the high-frequency sounds of operatic sopranos are produced with the same principle than speech and most other forms of singing.

The potential of quantum computers is currently thwarted by a trade-off problem. Quantum systems that can carry out complex operations are less tolerant to errors and noise, while systems that are more protected against noise are harder and slower to compute with. Now a research team has created a unique system that combats the dilemma, thus paving the way for longer computation time and more robust quantum computers.

The potential of quantum computers is currently thwarted by a trade-off problem. Quantum systems that can carry out complex operations are less tolerant to errors and noise, while systems that are more protected against noise are harder and slower to compute with. Now a research team has created a unique system that combats the dilemma, thus paving the way for longer computation time and more robust quantum computers.

Shooting a movie in the lab requires special equipment. Especially when the actors are molecules -- invisible to the naked eye -- reacting with each other. 'Imagine trying to film tiny lava flows during a volcanic eruption. Your smartphone camera wouldn't be up to the job.

In late 2019 the previously unremarkable galaxy SDSS1335+0728 suddenly started shining brighter than ever before. To understand why, astronomers have used data from several space and ground-based observatories, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), to track how the galaxy's brightness has varied. In a study out today, they conclude that they are witnessing changes never seen before in a galaxy -- likely the result of the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at its core.

The rise of advanced artificial intelligence (edge AI) could well mark the beginning of a new era for sustainable agriculture. A recent study proposes a roadmap for integrating this technology into farming practices. The aim? To improve the efficiency, quality and safety of agricultural production, while addressing a range of environmental, social and economic challenges.

The newest phase of China’s lunar exploration project is soon coming to an end. On June 20th, the Chang’e 6 sample return mission starts its journey back to Earth from the far side of the Moon, having already collected samples and blasted itself back into lunar orbit. But since a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s look at some of the more memorable images that have come out of this mission so far.

China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) released up close and personal images of the Chang’e-6 landers/ascender system on June 14th. They were taken by a small, autonomous rover that descended from the lander, maneuvered to a suitable position, framed a photograph, and took one, all without input from its human overlords. 

Weighing in at only 5 kg, the rover showed what is possible for autonomous operation with relatively light hardware. It also shows an impressive amount of autonomy for a lunar rover, especially one operational only on the “far” side of the Moon.

Shot of the Chang’e-6 lander/ascender taken by its companion autonomous rover.
Credit – CNSA

It wasn’t the only observer that captured an interesting image of China’s sixth mission in a series named after Chang’e, the Chinese Moon goddess. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the orbiter from overhead space and showed a dramatic change in its surroundings. 

In the image, the lander itself appears as a bright white dot. However, the surrounding area also appears significantly lighter. This had to do with the blast radius of the lander’s retrograde rockets for its soft landing. Those powerful rockets blew away the dark lunar regolith that had remained untouched for millions of years. The picture was snapped on June 7th, after the Chang’e-6 ascent vehicle had launched back off the surface and rendezvoused with the orbiter that will take the samples it collected back to Earth. In so doing, it likely blew away plenty of material with its own ascent rockets.

During its time on the Moon, Chang’e-6 collected 2 kg of samples, which it will return to a laboratory on Earth. This is the second time CNSA has planned such a mission and the first time one has taken place on the far side that humans cannot see from Earth. 

Fraser discusses the Chang’e-6 mission to collect lunar samples in this news update.

The next in the sequence of Chinese moon missions is Chang’e-7, which will focus its research efforts on the lunar south pole. Scientists predict water ice might be abundant there and that it might be the potential future site of a crewed Chinese moon base. Chang’e-7 will also include a hopping rover to explore the local environs surrounding its lander, but it isn’t scheduled for launch until 2026.

Currently, the Chang’e-6 mission orbiter, which has already successfully docked with the ascent vehicle containing the collected samples, is waiting for the opportune time to return to Earth. It will also serve as the return vehicle, which is planned to land back on Earth on June 25th. If all goes according to plan, there will soon be more lunar samples for scientists to explore and another successful mission for the CSNA that will have been documented in some pretty astounding pictures.

Learn More:
CGTN – Unraveling Chang’e-6: Discover the mini rover that snapped a photo of Chang’e-6 probe
NASA – NASA’s LRO Spots China’s Chang’e 6 Spacecraft on Lunar Far Side
UT – Chinese Probe Collects Moon Samples and Heads for Earth
UT – Chinese Probe Lands on Moon’s Far Side to Collect Samples for Return

Lead Image:
This image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows China’s Chang’e 6 lander in the Apollo basin on the far side of the Moon on June 7, 2024. The lander is the bright dot in the center of the image. The image is about 0.4 miles wide (650 meters); lunar north is up.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

The post There’s Chang’e-6 on the Far Side of the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Reader Alan Garcia-Elfring, a recent Ph.D. graduate of Montreal’s McGill University (he didn’t have qualms about my using his name) sent along an email from the university President about a rather disturbing Instagram post from the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights [SPHR] McGill Instagram site.) The first link goes to the post itself, but I’ve put a screenshot below in case they take it down. Have a gander:

I haven’t dug much further, but it looks as if there’s an encampment at McGill and they’re holding a summer program that seems to turn the encampment into a branch of Hamas.  This has caused a kerfuffle promoted by both the press and the understandably disturbed Jewish community of Montreal. For example, here’s one report from CTV News in Montreal (click to read):

An excerpt:

Pro-Palestinian activists who have been encamped on McGill University’s downtown campus since April launched what they call their own summer school on Monday, despite controversy over photos of armed fighters used to promote the program.

The encampment’s youth summer program promises “revolutionary lessons” and political discussions over the next four weeks, including a series of lectures on Palestinian history, the resistance movement and the role of the media since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

But on Friday, federal and provincial politicians called for the encampment to be dismantled after posters for the summer program were published online featuring photos of Palestinian resistance fighters wearing kaffiyehs and holding rifles. The photos date from around 1970, and the militants appear to be reading copies of Chairman Mao Zedong’s “The Little Red Book.”

“Enough is enough, this is hate speech and incitement to hate, pure and simple!” federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller posted on X. “De-escalation at McGill has clearly failed. This needs to end!”

Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Dery said the poster was tantamount to “provocation, explicit incitement to violence, even indoctrination.”

Insp. David Shane of the Montreal police told reporters Monday that while the poster doesn’t target any particular group, “it’s clearly in very poor taste and it’s likely to make people feel unsafe.” He said police have opened an investigation and have “been in contact with the RCMP.”

. . .As of Monday morning, online registration for the summer program had closed. Karim said 50 to 80 people have signed up for the first week of lectures, which will take place every afternoon. Organizers, she added, were surprised by the number of registrants, and may open up more spots in the weeks to come.

Most of the attendees will be students, Karim said. ” 1/8They 3/8 were really interested in the idea of being able to come here and get educated on Palestine.”

Members of the encampment have said they will not leave until McGill ends its investments in companies tied to the Israeli military and cuts ties with Israeli institutions. The university has made offers to protesters, the most recent of which included to review its investments in weapons manufacturers and grant amnesty to protesting students. Members of the encampment rejected that offer, calling it “laughable.”

I don’t know how much of this is considered “free speech” (Canada doesn’t have a First Amendment), nor whether the encampment itself violates university rules. At any rate, the poster and press response got sufficient attention that McGill’s President had to write the following letter to the university community (click to read, though I’ve transcribed the letter below):

Dear McGill community,

On the evening of June 12, a group called Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) published a notice on social media platforms featuring masked individuals holding assault rifles, which called for participation in a “revolutionary youth summer program” on the lower field next week. Their stated aim is to “educate the youth of Montreal.”

This is extremely alarming. It has attracted international media attention, and many in our community have understandably reached out to share grave concerns – concerns that I share.

It should go without saying that imagery evoking violence is not a tool of peaceful expression or assembly. This worrying escalation is emblematic of the rising tensions on campuses across North America, where we have seen many incidents that go well beyond what universities are equipped to manage on their own.

As such, today we have reached out to municipal, provincial, and federal public safety authorities, flagging this social media post and other recent activities as matters of national security, and requesting all appropriate interventions to ensure the safety of our community.

I want to emphasize that this is only the latest escalation in SPHR’s longstanding strategy of intimidation and fear. This is the same group that described the October 7 Hamas assault and taking of hostages as “heroic.” SPHR has invoked offensive antisemitic language and imagery, and claimed responsibility for the harassment of McGill community members. Their incendiary rhetoric and tactics seek to intimidate and destabilize our community.

In recent months, some members of the McGill community have chosen to advocate for their views through open dialogue and peaceful protest. Regrettably, SPHR is not among them.

Next Steps

• In addition to our appeals to public safety authorities at all levels of government, we will further increase the presence of security staff near the encampment and elsewhere on campus.
• We continue to pursue legal action to bar SPHR from using the McGill name on social media platforms and elsewhere, and we are working with legal counsel to explore a range of additional measures.
• We will pursue internal disciplinary processes.
• We have called upon the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the independent student union that includes all undergraduate students as members and lists SPHR as an affiliated “club,” to publicly condemn this “summer program,” sever their relationship with SPHR, cease any disbursement of funds to them, and affirm SSMU’s commitment to the well-being and success of McGill students of all identities, beliefs, and lived experiences. We have indicated that, should SSMU fail to take these steps, this will be interpreted as their endorsement of SPHR’s activities.

As a campus community, we need not all share the same views, but it is imperative that we share a common respect for the limits of acceptable behaviour. SPHR’s actions have far surpassed that threshold. We will continue to deploy any and all measures available to us, within the bounds of the law, to keep our community safe.

Sincerely,

Deep Saini

President and Vice-Chancellor

The President is threatening to remove SPHR from being what we at Chicago call a “recognized student organization,” which here gives a group the rights, among other stuff, to use the University name, hold events at the University and get funding. I’m not sure whether that applies at McGill, nor whether the poster above constitutes some kind of violation. But if the encampment violates University rules, blocks off space and creates an atmosphere of exclusion and threat, then McGill might take action. They say they’re pursuing “internal disciplinary processes,” implying that University restrictions have been violated.

There’s a large Jewish community in Montreal (Steve Pinker was part of it and went to McGill as an undergraduate), so of course this is bound to create a fracas. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, the poster by itself seems to me free speech (though unwise speech). But there are those other activities as well as the encampment itself. . . . Weigh in below.

A 19th-century thought experiment that was once thought to defy the laws of thermodynamics has now been realised to make molecules accumulate on one side of a U-bend

Neuroscientist Mayaan Levy has sent in a second batch of photos, which are below. I’ve indented her captions and IDs, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Come on, feel the Illinoise!

During my years in Chicago I traveled out-of-state often. I longed for the mountains: the Rockies, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevadas, the Smokies, the Whites (NH) and the Catskills. On busy weekends or when we ran out of money, as it tends to happen to grad students, we would stay home in flat yet wondrous Illinois. Blasting jazz or Sufjan Stevens in my then-boyfriend’s (now-husband) ’99 Chevy Lumina with magenta velvet seats, we’d hope to get somewhere where we would see some nature. Only when we left Chicago I realized how much I miss Illinois woods. This is a small, nostalgic tribute.

Our favorite destination was probably Shawnee national forest, which was quite a stretch for the Chevy. Here are some Shawnee turtles:

Box turtle (unsure whether Terrapene carolina or Terrapene ornata, I believe the latter is considered threatened):

Midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) – Illinois State reptile!:

 Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) hanging out on trail:

What I find fascinating about turtles is their brumation: I get it that metabolism slows down considerably like in hibernation, but how do they deal with the anoxia underwater?

Shawnee also has world-class mushroom forging. The place is a mycologist’s paradise. As amateurs, we were always after choice edibles – fry them in butter, add them to risotto, throw them into Chicago style stuffed deep-dish. Despite eating nuts, seeds, fruit and eggs, I find it quite weird sometimes that when we eat mushrooms we actually eat their reproductive organs.

Black morels (Morchella elata). Spotted in early April, they are among the first mushrooms to pop up, and boy, are they tasty. If you’ll be nice in the comments maybe I’ll disclose the exact location. While I’ve been told to never eat morels with booze (you’re welcome to weigh in on this if you know more), I’ve seen many moonshiners and rednecks with beers in hand forage for them:

Pear-shaped puffballs (Apioperdon pyriforme). Edible as well, but when mature the puffballs burst and spray spores right into your face:

We think these are a type of honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea), but we’re not sure. Please let me know in the comments if you can identify:

An epic chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) haul from Shawnee in early July 2020. They are my favorites but they are not fun to clean. Unfortunately, this trip was cut short upon discovering scores of deer ticks on our clothes;

Moving west, the Hennepin canal, nowadays an awesome biking trip, started as an ambitious project to link the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to ship goods. It’s a really interesting piece of history, so here’s the Wikipedia page about it

As for wildlife, if you camp you’d be serenaded by frogs and toads, water birds live around, and mosquitos are unfortunately a problem.

One of the locks on the canal (it has about 30, some of them are still functioning!):

Dusk, right after rain, on the Hennepin canal:

The closest destination, and therefore holds a warm spot in my heart is Busse woods. It has a mini-lake / swamp, and I’ve often seen people there taking photos of birds. As usual, we’re after the food: mulberries, black walnuts, and:

Huge Chicken-of-the-woods spiral (Laetiporus sulphureus), a summer mushroom:

Kankakee river state park is where we’d go to put our feet in the water, look at some pretty conic shells and pretend to be pirates on an epic adventure for an afternoon. Several years ago a new pedestrian bridge was built across the river, resulting in a large pile of debris which is overlooked by most. However, rocks in this pile are rich in fossils. I’m unsure from what period exactly, but I (amateur naturalist) would guess Cambrian / Ordovician when aquatic life flourished and before the first big mass extinction. If you know more about the geology of the Illinois basin, but please share your knowledge.

Some sort of crinoid impression fossil:

Trilobite?:

The Moon is a tough place to survive, and not just for humans. The wild temperature extremes between day and night make it extremely difficult to build reliable machinery that will continue to operate. But an engineering team from Nagoya University in Japan have developed an energy-efficient new way to control Loop Heat Pipes (LHP) to safely cool lunar rovers. This will extend their lifespan, keeping them running for extended lunar exploration missions.

How do you keep a rover insulated well enough to survive the frozen lunar nights, without cooking it during the day? A team of engineers led by Dr Masahito Nishikawara of Nagoya University may have found an answer. By combining a loop heat pipe (LHP) with an electrohydrodynamic pump (EHP), they have created a mechanism to cool machinery efficiently in the vacuum of space, but in a form which can also be turned off at night. Crucially, it is so efficient that it uses practically no power at all.

The Moon is an extraordinarily harsh environment for machinery. Aside from the highly abrasive regolith, which sticks to everything and is found everywhere, the Moon has no atmosphere and a very slow rotational period. This means that days and nights on the moon last 14 Earth days each, and reach extreme temperatures. With no atmosphere to insulate and transport heat around the Moon, night-time temperatures can drop all the way down to -173º Celsius, while the unfiltered heat from the Sun causes daytime temperatures to climb as high as 127º Celsius.

It is very difficult to design complex machinery to work reliably under such conditions. The long nights mean that the energy harvested from solar panels needs to be stored in very large batteries, but batteries do not cope well with low temperatures. They can be electrically warmed, but heaters need a constant flow of electricity, draining the batteries. Alternatively, a machine can be heavily insulated to keep it functional when idle, but this leads to overheating when it is active, and when the Sun rises.

Overheating can damage batteries, but it’s equally bad for electronic components. Active cooling systems are the traditional answer. They work similarly to the radiator in a car by pumping coolant through a large radiator, but these require power to run. This is a problem when you need your batteries to last 14 days before the next recharge. Passive systems, such as LHPs, are effective and don’t require power, but they run continuously, even when you would prefer heating.

“Heat-switch technology that can switch between daytime heat dissipation and nighttime insulation is essential for long-term lunar exploration,” said lead researcher Masahito Nishikawara. “During the day, the lunar rover is active, and the electronic equipment generates heat. Since there is no air in space, the heat generated by the electronics must be actively cooled and dissipated. On the other hand, during extremely cold nights, electronics must be insulated from the outside environment so that they don’t get too cold.”

LHPs can be thought of as a cross between the machinery of a refrigerator or air conditioner, and the heat pipes in modern laptop computers. Like a refrigerator, a liquid refrigerant is allowed to absorb heat which causes it to vaporise. The vapour then passes through a radiator, which cools it back to ambient temperatures. This turns it back into a liquid, and the cycle repeats. The phase changes, from liquid to gas and back, allow the refrigerant to transfer heat very efficiently. Heat pipes, by contrast, use capillary action to move a liquid between a heat source (such as your computer’s CPU or graphics accelerator) and a radiator. LHPs combine the capillary transport action of a heat pipe with the phase changes of a refrigeration unit.

LHPs have been used in space before, where they have been equipped with valves to block the flow of refrigerant when cooling is not needed. However, these valves significantly reduce the system’s cooling efficiency. Nishikawara’s innovation is to replace the valves with an Electrohydrodynamic pump. EHPs are low-powered pumps which work by inducing electric currents in a fluid, and then using the resulting magnetic field to apply force to the fluid. This has the advantage of not intruding into the plumbing of the system, which means there is no interference with flow when it isn’t active.

Nishikawara’s team have added low-powered EHPs to an LHP to act as a very efficient valve: When they need to turn cooling off, the EHP is activated to create a small opposing force that stops the flow of refrigerant, while sipping only a tiny amount of power.

“This groundbreaking approach not only ensures the rover’s survival in extreme temperatures but also minimizes energy expenditure, a critical consideration in the resource-constrained lunar environment,” Nishikawara said. “It lays the foundation for potential integration into future lunar missions, contributing to the realization of sustained lunar exploration efforts.”

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1047341

The post A New Way to Survive the Harsh Lunar Night appeared first on Universe Today.

What killed off the dodo? Humans first arrived at Mauritius island in the late 1500s. They found on this island fat flightless birds who nested on the ground and were a convenient way to restock their ship’s food supply. Within 80 years the dodo went extinct. But hunting was not the only, and maybe not even the primary, cause of their extinction. Rather it was likely something that the humans brought with them – invasive species. One species in particular tends to follow humans every where we go, causing havoc on any local ecosystem not already adapted to them – rats.

Dodos nested on the ground and typically had one large egg per nest. This was also a convenient food source for invasive rats, who quickly multiplied and decimated the dodo population. There were other invasive species as well (monkeys and pigs), and there was also habitat loss due to human activity – all of these factors put stress on the dodo population that was unsustainable.

It is an unfortunate unintended consequence of human history that as we explored and populated the world, rats followed us. Rats now exist on every continent except Antarctica, and they are likely the most populous mammal species in the world. They are a clever and adaptive species, and are very good at stowing away. They also reproduce very quickly, with a single female able to produce 50 pups per year. They also have a low mortality rate because they live in communities and protect their young.

But perhaps their most successful feature is that they are well adapted to living off human civilization. They go wherever people go and feed on our refuse. They hide away on ships which means they can get anywhere, including previously isolated island ecosystems. They are good climbers, jumpers, and swimmers and find lots of ways to get on board ships. It is estimated that 40-60% of island bird and reptile extinctions are due to rats.

To be clear, I am not saying rats are somehow inherently bad or to demonize them. They are just really good and what they do, and they have “a particular set of skills” that happened to be optimized for exploiting human civilization. We took a species from Northern China and made it into a globally dominant species (actually there are many species of rat, mostly from Asia originally). The actual culprit here is humans. We are responsible for the rat phenomenon.

There are things we can do about it, however. One thing we can do is eradicate rats from isolated islands so that native species can repopulate. This may require that they be reintroduced (when possible). Obviously we can’t reverse extinction (not yet) but we can reintroduce cousins or species that still exist in other locations or captivity. Once eradicated it is feasible to keep rats from being reintroduced.

Also, seabirds can make a significant come back on these islands once invasive species like rats are removed and native vegetation is restored. There is enough fish to sustain a large seabird population, if they can nest on the island (without rats eating their eggs).

Perhaps the largest island restoration project is Zealandia – which is a project to restore a park in New Zealand to its pre-human habitat. To accomplish this it had to be walled off so that no invasive species could enter. New Zealand is a great example of how the isolation of islands allows them to evolve unique, but vulnerable. ecosystems. New Zealand had almost not mammals and no mammalian predators. This meant the native species had no natural defenses against such predators. The main mammalian predators there now are rats, possum, and stoats, all introduced by humans. They have devastated the local wildlife resulting in an estimated 51 species extinctions.

Islands were most vulnerable to rats and other invasive species, but they also represent a unique opportunity, since it is feasible to eradicate rats there and keep them from being reintroduced. One measure that is important to this effort is good anti-rat standards on all shipping. This means leaving no edible waste around, placing rat barriers on any ropes tying a ship to a dock, setting traps, and being vigilant.

What about on continents and in cities? It is generally believed that once a rat population is established in such a location it is essentially impossible to eliminate it. New York City, for example, has a large and well established rat population. In fact, there is estimated to be over 3 million rats in NYC, with distinct genetic populations in uptown and downtown Manhattan. I visit NYC often, and every time I do you can see rats just walking and and down the sidewalk.

There is something else you see in the city – garbage. Catch and kill mitigation strategies simply will not work in NYC. Rats breed too quickly and there are too many places for them to hide. The number of rats in NYC, some experts argue, is essentially a function of how much food there is in the city for them to eat. The rat problem is a sanitation problem. As with shipping, there needs to be universal and tightly enforced regulations to minimize the availability of garbage for rats to eat. This is happening to some degree, requiring metal garbage containers, for example. But again, anyone who has visited NYC can see quite plainly that garbage remains a serious problem. I get that it is challenging to manage the waste of a city as large and dense and NYC, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just requires massive investment and a culture change.

Rats as an invasive species is a problem of our own making (like so many things). But it is also a problem that we have the ability to mitigate.

The post Rats! first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

There are so many Russian landmines across Ukraine that removing them could take 700 years. To prioritise areas for de-mining, the Ukrainian government has turned to an artificial intelligence model that can identify the most important regions

How we decide what makes a good topic for a skeptical documentary film.

The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead depicts a scene in which a bowel of golden rice is weighed against the feather of truth.

The post Save the Whales, Blind the Children first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Eye-contact has a significant impact on interpersonal evaluation, and online job interviews are no exception. In addition to the quality of a resume, the direction of the interviewee's gaze might help (or hinder) their chances of securing the job.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of the Solar System’s defining features. It’s a massive storm that astronomers have observed since the 1600s. However, its date of formation and longevity are up for debate. Have we been seeing the same phenomenon all this time?

The GRS is a gigantic anti-cyclonic (rotating counter-clockwise) storm that’s larger than Earth. Its wind speeds exceed 400 km/h (250 mp/h). It’s an icon that humans have been observing since at least the 1800s, possibly earlier. Its history, along with how it formed, is a mystery.

Its earliest observations may have been in 1632 when a German Abbott used his telescope to look at Jupiter. 32 years later, another observer reported seeing the GRS moving from east to west. Then, in 1665, Giovanni Cassini examined Jupiter with a telescope and noted the presence of a storm at the same latitude as the GRS. Cassini and other astronomers observed it continuously until 1713 and he named it the Permanent Spot.

Unfortunately, astronomers lost track of the spot. Nobody saw the GRS for 118 years until astronomer S. Schwabe observed a clear structure, roughly oval and at the same latitude as the GRS. Some think of that observation as the first observation of the current GRS and that the storm formed again at the same latitude. But the details fade the further back in time we look. There are also questions about the earlier storm and its relation to the current GRS.

New research in Geophysical Research Letters combined historical records with computer simulations of the GRS to try to understand this chimerical meteorological phenomenon. Its title is “The Origin of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,” and the lead author is Agustín Sánchez-Lavega. Sánchez-Lavega is a Professor of Physics at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain. He’s also head of the Planetary Sciences Group and the Department of Applied Physics at the University.

“Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is the largest and longest-lived known vortex of all solar system planets, but its lifetime is debated, and its formation mechanism remains hidden,” the authors write in their paper.

The researchers started with historical sources dating back to the mid-1600s, just after the telescope was invented. They analyzed the size, structure, and movement of both the PS and the GRS. But that’s not a simple task. “The appearance of the GRS and its Hollow throughout the history of Jupiter observations has been highly variable due to changes in size, albedo and contrast with surrounding clouds,” they write.

This figure from the research compares the Permanent Spot (PS) and the current GRS. a, b, and c are drawings by Cassini from 1677, 1690, and 1691, respectively. d is a current 2023 image of the GRS. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.

“From the measurements of sizes and movements we deduced that it is highly unlikely that the current GRS was the PS observed by G. D. Cassini. The PS probably disappeared sometime between the mid-18th and 19th centuries, in which case we can say that the longevity of the Red Spot now exceeds 190 years at least,” said lead author Sánchez-Lavega. The GRS was 39,000 km long in 1879 and has shrunk to 14,000 km since then. It’s also become more rounded.

Four views of Jupiter and its GRS. a is a drawing of the Permanent Spot by G. D. Cassini from 19 January 1672. b is a drawing by S. Swabe from 10 May 1851. It shows the GRS area as a clear oval with limits marked by its Hollow (drawn by a red dashed line). c is a Photograph by A. A. Common from 1879. d is a photograph from Observatory Lick with a yellow filter on 14 October 1890. Each image is an astronomical image of Jupiter with south up and east down. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.

The historical record is valuable, but we have different tools at our disposal now. Space telescopes and spacecraft have studied the GRS in ways that would’ve been unimaginable to Cassini and others. NASA’s Voyager 1 captured our first detailed image of the GRS in 1979, when it was just over 9,000,000 km from Jupiter.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot as imaged by Voyager 1 in 1979. The intricate wave patterns were unseen until this image. Image Credit: By NASA – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00014, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86812

Since Voyager’s image, the Galileo and Juno spacecraft have both imaged the GRS. Juno, in particular, has given us more detailed images and data on Jupiter and the GRS. It captured images of the planet from only 8,000 km above the surface. Juno takes raw images of the planet with its Junocam, and NASA invites anyone to process the images, leading to artful images of the GRS like the one below.

A different take on Jupiter and its GRS. Image Credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Navaneeth Krishnan S © CC BY

Juno also measured the depth of the GRS, something previous efforts couldn’t achieve. Recently, “various instruments on board the Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter have shown that the GRS is shallow and thin when compared to its horizontal dimension, as vertically it is about 500 km long,” explained Sánchez-Lavega.

Jupiter’s atmosphere contains winds running in opposite directions at different latitudes. North of the GRS, winds blow in a westerly direction and reach speeds of 180 km/h. South of the GRS, the winds flow in the opposite direction at speeds of 150 km/h. These winds generate a powerful wind shear that fosters the vortex.

In their supercomputer simulations, the researchers examined different forces that could produce the GRS in these circumstances. They considered the eruption of a gigantic superstorm like the kind that happens, though rarely, on Saturn. They also examined the phenomenon of smaller vortices created by the wind shear that merged together to form the GRS. Both of those produced anti-cyclonic storms, but their shapes and other properties didn’t match the current GRS.

“From these simulations, we conclude that the super-storm and the mergers mechanisms, although they generate a single anticyclone, are unlikely to have formed the GRS,” the researchers write in their paper.

The authors also point out that if either of these had happened, we should’ve seen them. “We also think that if one of these unusual phenomena had occurred, it or its consequences in the atmosphere must have been observed and reported by the astronomers at the time,” said Sánchez-Lavega.

However, other simulations proved more accurate in reproducing the GRS. Jupiter’s winds are known to have instabilities called the South Tropical Disturbance (STrD). When the researchers performed supercomputer simulations of the STrD, they created an anti-cyclonic storm very similar to the GRS. The STrD captured the different winds in the region and trapped them in an elongated shell like the GRS. “We therefore propose that the GRS generated from a long cell resulting from the STrD, that acquired coherence and compactness as it shrank,” the authors write.

These images from the research show how the GRS formed. a is a drawing by T. E. R. Phillips in 1931–1932 of the STrD. The red arrows indicate the flow direction with the longitude scale indicated. b and c are maps drawn from images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. The yellow arrows mark position-velocity changes in the STrD. The STrD trapped winds and created a long cell that generated the Great Red Spot. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.

The simulations show that over time, the GRS would rotate more rapidly as it shrank and became more coherent and compact until the elongated cell more closely resembled the current GRS. Since that’s what the GRS appears like now, the researchers settled on this explanation.

That process likely began in the mid-1800s when the GRS was much larger than it is now. That leads to the conclusion that the GRS is only about 150 years old.

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