Incredible 3D Rendering from Jupiter Spacecraft Reveals “Frosted Cupcake” Clouds:
Jupiter clouds rendered-from JunoCam.
After the Juno spacecraft used 3D rendering to process some images it took of clouds covering Jupiter, they appeared like frosted cupcakes. Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4th, 2016, after a 5-year, 1.7-billion-mile journey, and settled into a 53-day polar orbit stretching from just above Jupiter’s cloud tops to the outer reaches of the Jovian magnetosphere. Put on board initially to increase public engagement around the exploration of Jupiter and its moons, Eichstätd has demonstrated that JunoCam can also provide valuable science. Understanding the relative heights of the spiky pillars within the swirls will help scientists to unveil in more detail the elements that compose them. Furthermore, JunoCam’s renderings came in the visible-light spectrum, so the animations of the relative heights of the cloud tops in our solar system’s largest planet are exactly as we would see them. The results have been presented by a citizen scientist, professional mathematician, and software developer, Gerald Eichstädt, at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada. The pictures from Juno have been some of the most awe-inspiring to ever come out of observations in space, and the colors, patterns, and textures of the Jovian atmosphere surmount the creativity of even the most excitable painter.
Pacific Ocean set to make way for world's next supercontinent:
A possible Amasia configuration 280 Myr into the future. Credit: Curtin University
New Curtin University-led research has found that the world's next supercontinent, Amasia, will most likely form when the Pacific Ocean closes in 200 to 300 million years. The researchers used a supercomputer to simulate the formation of supercontinents and found patterns that the Earth has been cooling for billions of years, making the thickness and strength of the plates under the oceans reduce with time. Due to this, it has been found that the closing of the Atlantic and Indian oceans is much more difficult, making it more likely that a supercontinent will form with the closing of the Pacific ocean. To provide context the lead researcher Dr. Chuan Huang says "Over the past 2 billion years, Earth's continents have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle. This means that the current continents are due to come together again in a couple of hundred of million years' time." Many scientists are now speculating that the new supercontinent named Amasia will form with the collision of Asia and America with help from Australia to form the new landmass. More evidence of this event happening is also shown in the shrinking of the Pacific by a few centimeters per year. With this in mind, its width of 10 thousand kilometers is predicted to take 200 to 300 million years to close. Although this is not completely for certain, this new theory provides a new way to look at our changing world and will help us understand the context of Earth’s history.
‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives:
Sperm whales (shown) dive far underwater looking for food. Dense, intricate networks of blood vessels allow the animals to accomplish the feat without harming their brains. WILDESTANIMAL/MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
A new analysis suggests that the blood vessel networks of cetaceans’ brains protect them from the pulses of blood pressure that the animals endure while diving deep in the ocean, researchers report. Called retia mirabilia, which means “wonderful nets,” the blood vessel networks are present in some other animals besides cetaceans, including giraffes and horses. When whales and dolphins dive, they move their tail up and down in an undulating manner, which creates surges in blood pressure. Without a way to relieve that pressure, those blasts could tear blood vessels and harm other organs, including the brain. Through the study, these networks were analyzed, and researchers found arteries and veins in this system of blood vessels are really close and may even sometimes be joined. As a result, the retia mirabilia could equalize the differences in blood pressure generated by diving, perhaps by redistributing the blood pulses from arteries to veins and vice versa. This way, the networks get rid of or at least weaken, huge blood pressure surges that might otherwise reach and devastate the brain. While this explains some of the mystery behind these systems, much is still unknown about similar species and how their circulatory systems work differently to compensate.
Sources:
Pacific Ocean set to make way for world's next supercontinent (phys.org)
Clumps of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives | Science News