I simply must find some escapist fare -- while we wait to see how the above jurist responds to Bill Barr's corruption, of the Flynn case tonight. And we may have to wait. . . weeks. So. . . I'll settle in.
Here is the off-world fare then: when facets of the iconic, twistingly-graceful copper spot of Jupiter seem to disappear only to reappear, later -- the mysterious force. . . is in fact. . . naught but clearings, in the 50 mile high cloud columns. Cool -- who knew? With the help of JPL/NASA -- well, now. . . you do:
. . . .With Hubble and Gemini observing Jupiter more frequently during the Juno mission, scientists are also able to study short-term changes and short-lived features like those in the Great Red Spot.
Images from Juno as well as previous missions to Jupiter revealed dark features within the Great Red Spot that appear, disappear and change shape over time. It was not clear from individual images whether these are caused by some mysterious dark-colored material within the high cloud layer, or if they are instead holes in the high clouds — windows into a deeper, darker layer below.
Now, with the ability to compare visible-light images from Hubble with thermal infrared images from Gemini captured within hours of each other, it is possible to answer the question. Regions that are dark in visible light are very bright in infrared, indicating that they are, in fact, holes in the cloud layer. In cloud-free regions, heat from Jupiter's interior that is emitted in the form of infrared light — otherwise blocked by high-level clouds — is free to escape into space and therefore appears bright in Gemini images.
"It's kind of like a jack-o-lantern," said Wong. "You see bright infrared light coming from cloud-free areas, but where there are clouds, it's really dark in the infrared. . . ."
Onward. Smiling. . . not disappeared, at all.
नमस्ते
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