Planet-gazers from Cebu find Jupiter's 3rd red spot
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Reuters
First Posted 00:40:00 05/24/2008
Filed Under: Astronomy, Good news, Human Interest
WASHINGTON--Jupiter has a new freckle--a third red spot which planet-gazers in Cebu helped discover.
It was also an amateur astronomer in Cebu that discovered the second red spot in 2006. That has since been dubbed Red Spot Jr. of Jupiter.
A Reuters news agency article said that Christopher Go of Cebu helped locate the third red spot. Go, a businessman, was the amateur gazer who discovered Red Spot Jr. two years ago.
But Go told the Inquirer Friday it was a friend of his, Tomio Akutsu, a Japanese national in his 50s, who lives in Barangay Mabolo in Cebu City, who actually caught the first images of the latest red spot in the pictures Akutsu took of Jupiter.
The new discovery is much smaller than Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr., scientists said on Thursday. The Great Red Spot has been visible for as long as 350 years.
The third red spot arose from a white oval-shaped storm, and its change to a red color indicates that the storm is swirling up high into the Jovian atmosphere, the international team of planetary scientists said.
Images taken by the orbiting Hubble space telescope and the Keck telescope in Hawaii may support the idea that climate change is under way on Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
The gas giant's temperatures may be changing by 27 to 36 degrees Celsius, perhaps driving more turbulent storms.
Just a pastime
Taking shots of the planet early in the morning is Akutsu's pastime. Akutsu serves as manager of BP Dental, one of the companies operating at the Mactan Economic Zone 2 (MEZ 2).
Just like other amateur planet watchers in Cebu, Akutsu wakes at dawn to shoot the planet. Little did he realize his photos had captured images of the new spot, Go said.
Akutsu posted his pictures on the Internet so that the rest of the astronomical community could view them.
Dynamic planet
When Dr. John Rogers, the Jupiter section head of the British Astronomical Association, analyzed Akutsu's photos along with that of Anthony Wesley, another amateur astronomer from Australia, he saw the third red spot, Go said.
"Dr. Rogers alerted the astronomical community about the existence of the third red spot of Jupiter on the last week of February," Go said.
According to Go, amateur astronomers like to take photos of Jupiter since it is a dynamic planet and its cloud patterns always change.
Cebu's amateur astronomers usually take photos of Jupiter--which can be found at 60 degrees above the southern horizon--at 3:00 a.m.
Collision in August
The team at the University of California Berkeley said all three spots represent storms and must be towering above the methane in Jupiter's atmosphere.
"If this spot and the Great Red Spot continue on their courses, they will encounter each other in August, and the small oval will either be absorbed or repelled from the Great Red Spot," Michael Wong of Berkeley, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
Go said amateur astronomers in Cebu were elated that both Red Spot Jr. and the third red spot were discovered by one of their own.
Red Spot Jr.
Go himself became famous in the astronomical community in 2006 when he discovered Red Spot Jr., which was formed from the merger of three white spots that began between 1998 and 2000.
Go, a physics graduate from the Cebu City-based University of San Carlos, had been monitoring Jupiter's storms for several years using his Celestron C11 telescope when, one morning, he saw the white spots on the planet's southern hemisphere turn red.
Reports from Reuters and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas
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