2018 November 21 
Swirls and Colors on Jupiter from Juno
Image Credit: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS; Processing & License: Matt Brealey, Seán Doran
Explanation: What creates the colors in Jupiter's clouds? No one is sure. The thick atmosphere of Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and helium, elements which are colorless at the low temperatures of the Jovian cloud tops. Which trace elements provide the colors remains a topic of research, although small amounts of ammonium hydrosulfide are one leading candidate. What is clear from the featured color-enhanced image -- and many similar images -- is that lighter clouds are typically higher up than darker ones. Pictured, light clouds swirl around reddish regions toward the lower right, while they appear to cover over some darker domains on the upper right. The featured image was taken by the robotic Juno spacecraft during its 14th low pass over Jupiter earlier this year. Juno continues in its looping elliptical orbit, swooping near the huge planet every 53 days and exploring a slightly different sector each time around.
thanks for posting these pictures.... it's a reminder that we are all part of a bigger universe, outside and beyond our political bickering
Yes, thanks for the picture. It makes me think about something that has fascinated me for a long time - especially since I read James Gleick's excellent book "CHAOS: The Making of a New Science" back in the 80s or very early 90s.
What we are looking at in that picture is a vision of Chaos. Not randomness - chaos. It is impossible to look at a history of those patterns - even represented by ones and zeros - and make a prediction that will be anywhere near accurate into the future. It is simply too complex of a system.
Now, climate is chaotic too. Markets are chaotic too. Our heartbeat rhythms are chaotic. The drip of a faucet is chaotic. Building thunderstorms are chaotic. The list goes on and on. It is the way our existence appears to be designed. It is thought that heartbeats are chaotic because, if they weren't, the heart could never last for very long. Whenever markets seem to be predictable, we can count on them behaving differently going forward - but often similar to ways they have behaved in the past.
The fascinating thing to me is the similarity of, at least, many of these systems. A thunderstorm starts building so slowly that it is ignored - but eventually the long linear appearing trend (it's not really linear at the early stage either) moves into the "knee" of the curve and then explodes to the upside in an exponential fashion. Migraine headaches, for any of you who experience them, can seem to behave the same. They can start out so non threatening and build and build until they exhaust themselves. Those of us who have traded for awhile know that markets can behave that way too - just look at the box to the left of this and click on "max" under "Equities."
In Gleick's excellent book, there is a chapter called "The Experimenter" where he describes cyclic activity. A tiny tube of liquid helium is heated, and the result is the observation of cyclic patterns. Some patterns appear, grow in strength, fade out, and are never seen again. Some cycles appear, grow, and fade - but continue to appear again and again. To my amazement, this is exactly what I had been seeing in the markets. So, we have two chaotic systems behaving exactly alike - one a tube of liquid helium and the other a system dependent on human psychology.
Fascinating! (To me, at least.)
