In last week’s edition of Sciency Words, we covered the belts and zones of Jupiter’s atmosphere. As a brief summary:

• Zones are the light colored stripes.
• Belts are the darker, ruddy orange stripes.

While researching that post, something struck me as odd. The cooler clouds of zones rise above the warmer clouds of belts. That made no sense to me. Cold air rises? Warm air sinks? Isn’t that the opposite of what’s supposed to happen?

But there’s more to these clouds than temperature alone. We also have to consider air pressure.

Just as increasing the pressure of a gas can make it hotter, decreasing the pressure can make it cooler. So rather than picturing cool air masses somehow rising, picture rising air masses cooling off due to decreasing atmospheric pressure. Such a situation can be thermodynamically stable, especially when dealing with the extreme altitudes associated with planetary atmospheres.

Still sound crazy? Well, this phenomenon isn’t unique to Jupiter. Similar changes in air pressure occur here on Earth, which is why mountaintops get so cold while the fields and valleys below stay warm.

In many ways, Jupiter is a mysterious planet. We don’t fully understand what causes its enormous cyclonic and anticyclonic storms, nor do we fully understand what’s going on in the deeper layers of the planet’s interior. We’re not even sure why the Great Red Spot looks red.

But Jupiter isn’t that mysterious. Some things which might seem odd at first glance are actually pretty easy to explain.

So far this month, we’ve met two of Jupiter’s famous Galilean moons: Io and Europa. Now it’s time we met the moon named Ganymede.

Eh… no, Ganymede is in fact a moon, not a planet, although it does have some planet-like qualities.

• Ganymede is oddly large for a moon. It’s much larger than Earth’s moon. In fact, it’s larger (in terms of radius) than the planet Mercury, and it’s almost as large as Mars.
• Ganymede has it’s own magnetic field, providing some protection from solar and cosmic radiation. No other moon can claim that.
• Ganymede has a thin oxygen atmosphere. It’s nowhere near an Earth-like atmosphere, so leave your space helmet on. But still… oxygen!

All this, combined with plentiful liquid water beneath Ganymede’s surface, would make you think Ganymede is ripe for human colonization.

And indeed, Ganymede has been portrayed multiple times in science fiction as a major human outpost in the outer Solar System. But before you pack your bags and slap a “Ganymede or bust” sign on your spaceship, a note of caution.

Ganymede orbits within Jupiter’s radiation belts. While Ganymede’s magnetic field would provide some protection, it’s not enough to protect you from the radiation concentrated in those radiation belts.

Of course in a distant Sci-Fi future where humanity has overcome the radiation dangers associated with Lunar or Martian colonization, the colonization of Ganymede will seem much more plausible. In the meantime, NASA has its sights set on a different target for human space exploration.

Next week, we’ll be meeting (and possibly colonizing) a moon named Callisto.

The title of today’s post may seem like a moronic question, but Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is known to change color, ranging from brick red to ruddy orange to salmon pink. At times, it turns almost white. While the Red Spot remains somewhat mysterious, this color variation may have given us a clue as to what the heck is going on on Jupiter.

Currently, there are two competing explanations for the color of the Great Red Spot (or G.R.S.): the endogenic and photolytic hypotheses.

The Endogenic Hypothesis

As you may already know, the G.R.S. is a gigantic hurricane (technically, it’s an anticyclone). According to the endogenic hypothesis, this huge, vortex-like storm dredges up dark red material from lower layers of Jupiter’s atmosphere. If that’s true, then the G.R.S. is giving us a peek into Jupiter’s interior.

But there’s a problem with this idea. If the G.R.S. is made of layer upon layer of red stuff, it should appear darker, and it certainly shouldn’t change color so much.

Therefore, an alternate hypothesis is currently winning the scientific debate.

The Photolytic Hypothesis

By mixing two chemicals, ammonia and acetylene, in a lab and exposing the mixture to ultraviolet radiation, scientists were able to replicate the distinctive red color associated with the Great Red Spot.

On Jupiter, the G.R.S. billows up above the surrounding clouds, reaching altitudes approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) above the gas giant’s “surface.” The vortex-like nature of the storm could keep ammonia and acetylene trapped near the top, prolonging their exposure to ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

Beneath the topmost layer, G.R.S. clouds would likely appear light grey or pure white, and the storm’s observed color variations could be explained by influxes of fresh ammonia and acetylene.

Let’s Keep Staring

The scientific debate isn’t over. The photolytic hypothesis, so popular at the moment, will no doubt face challenges. The endogenic hypothesis, which seems to have fallen out of favor lately, might be revived, or perhaps an entirely new explanation will come to light.

Meanwhile, we need to collect more data. Which means humanity will continue to stare at Jupiter’s Red Spot with our telescopes. Occasionally, we might try poking it with our space probes.

Links

Is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot a Sunburn? from NASA Science News.

Why is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot… Red? from Sky and Telescope.

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Today’s post is part of Jupiter month for the 2015 Mission to the Solar System. Click here to find out more about this ongoing adventure.

Every Monday this month, as part of the 2015 Mission to the Solar System, were meeting a moon of Jupiter. Today, we’re meeting:

EUROPA

Liquid water. Europa has it. In fact, tiny as Europa is, it has more water in its subsurface ocean than in all the seas and oceans on Earth combined. But does this ocean support life? There are a few ways we could try to find out.

Fly Through a Water Plume

In 2012, Hubble observed water vapor spraying into space from Europa’s southern hemisphere. If Europa’s water plumes originate from its subsurface ocean, and if that ocean does indeed support life, then the plumes may include traces of biological material.

On a relatively low budget, a space probe could fly through one of these water plumes, collecting and analyzing samples of the ejected material.

However, Europa’s water plumes are difficult to detect. They seem to be rare and highly unpredictable, so it would require a lot of luck to position our probe in just the right place at just the right time.

Land on the Surface

Among its many claims to fame, Europa has the smoothest, youngest-looking surface of any object in the Solar System.

The lack of any significant cratering suggests that, much like Venus, Europa has been resurfaced recently. Most likely, Europa experiences near continuous resurfacing events as water finds its way to the surface, spreads out, and refreezes.

The lines crisscrossing the moon’s surface may be cracks in the ice that have refrozen, with sea salt and other minerals leaving a reddish-brown residue behind. If so, perhaps biological material has been deposited on Europa’s surface as well, just waiting for some NASA rover to come analyze it.

Dive into the Ocean

But to get a definitive answer about life on Europa, we need to go swimming. A robotic probe could melt its way through the surface ice and begin to explore the watery depths below.

Scientists believe Europa’s ocean has plenty of oxygen. There may also be hydrothermal vents near the bottom. Our underwater probe might discover microbial life clustered around these vents, or perhaps the probe’s cameras will observe schools of alien fish.

In one particularly awesome hypothetical scenario, maybe our intrepid little probe will be attacked by angry Europan sea monsters!

Pending Missions to Europa

NASA has preliminary plans to send a probe, tentatively named Clipper, to Europa. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency (ESA) is working on a mission called JUICE (the JUpiter ICy moon Explorer). While JUICE’s main objective is Ganymede, it will also visit Europa.

Best of all, Clipper and JUICE should reach the Jupiter system at around the same time, so NASA and ESA will have plenty of data to share during these missions.

Budget constraints have ruled out the possibility of landing or swimming on Europa, but mission planners have hinted that they might try to fly through a water plume, if Europa gives them a chance to do it.

Links

Scientists Plan to Hunt for Alien Life on Europa from National Geographic.

Sea Salt in Europa’s Dark Materials from Centauri Dreams.

Europa Clipper Concept Team Aims for Launch in 2022 from Spaceflight Now.

For the month of August, I’ve decided to forego my regular Molecular Monday posts. Instead, each Monday this month, we’re going to meet a moon, specifically a moon of Jupiter, starting with:

IO

I’d always assumed that space and everything in it is beautiful. The constellations are beautiful. Saturn is beautiful. The Andromeda Galaxy is beautiful. Then I saw a true color photograph of Io.

Io doesn’t look much like a celestial body. It looks more like something I might find growing in the back of my fridge. So what the heck happened to this poor moon?

Of Jupiter’s four largest moons (collectively known as the Galilean moons) Io is the closest to Jupiter. With Jupiter’s enormous gravity on one side and the gravities of the other three Galilean moons on the other, Io is trapped in an endless gravitational tug-of-war. Who wouldn’t feel queasy being pulled in so many different directions at once?

As a result, Io ends up constantly puking its guts out. By the word “puking,” I refer volcanic activity, and by “guts” I mean warm interior materials. These interior materials have a high percentage of sulfur and sulfur compounds. All that sulfur, which has been spewed liberally across Io’s surface, gives the moon its nasty, yellow-green complexion.

Months ago, we talked about the remote possibility that sulfur-based microorganisms could exist in the soupy atmosphere of Venus. I suppose a similar biochemistry could be possible on Io. It’s a stretch, but at least some astrobiologists think the possibility is worth investigating.

Next week, we’re going to me another of Jupiter’s moons, a moon with a much, much higher likelihood of supporting alien life.

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Today’s post is part of Jupiter month for the 2015 Mission to the Solar System. Click here for more about this series.