Mystery of Jupiter's Great Blue Spot deepens with strangely fluctuating jet

Mar 8, 2024

The mysterious workings of Jupiter's intense magnetic field are coming to light, thanks to a tiny jet buried deep in the gas giant's atmosphere. Every four years, this jet appears to fluctuate like a wave.

While it's not yet clear what drives this atmospheric jet, new findings reveal some clues about the invisible, complex workings of an intense area of magnetism near Jupiter's equator, dubbed the "Great Blue Spot." This region isn't actually blue; the name comes from the color scale scientists use to build maps of Jupiter's magnetic field. Unlike Earth's magnetic field, the gas giant's field is not symmetric with its rotational axis — this asymmetry is so pronounced, in fact, that the Great Blue Spot can even be likened to a second south pole poking out from the planet's equator. It also appears part of the region is getting swept westward by one jet while other parts are being tugged at by winds flowing eastward.

"It's a mystery," Yohai Kaspi, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and a co-investigator of NASA's Juno mission, told Space.com "We don't know why that place has that kind of an anomaly."

In a paper published Wednesday (March 6) in Nature, however, scientists may have offered some more insight into the Great Blue Spot. They used data sent home from the Juno probe, presently investigating Jupiter, as it had mapped the Great Blue Spot during a series of targeted flybys conducted during its extended mission. Much like ocean waves that change their speed as they move, the new finding suggests there may be wave-like behavior deep inside Jupiter's metallic core that could power the observed magnetic field, study lead author Jeremy Bloxham of Harvard University told BBC Science Focus.

"These changes can be explained in large part by an eastward drift of the spot, but, as reported in this paper, that rate of drift is fluctuating."

Scientists previously knew this cluster of intense magnetic fields drift more than anywhere else on the gas planet, thanks to strong winds blowing right from its turbulent "surface" to 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) deep. At that deepest point, Jupiter's intense magnetic field is thought to dampen these winds.

The newfound jet may even be drifting at a miniscule scale of tens of centimeters per second in that area, as opposed to other jets on the surface which travel many times faster.

Still, the finding is a "very marginal measurement," said Kaspi, who was not involved with the paper. He says it's better thought of as an initial result within the noise threshold as scientists don't yet have enough data to conclude the jet fluctuates precisely every four years.

"If your data is just from five years, you can't really say anything about a four-year period."

More observations from Juno could deliver certainty soon, which would ultimately help scientists better understand the dynamo that powers Jupiter's complex magnetic field.

https://www.space.com/jupiter-great-blue-spot-time-changing-jet-why

Roswell police have new patches that are out of this world, with flying saucers and alien faces

March 8, 2024 at 5:28 PM PST

Famous for being the spot where a spacecraft purportedly crashed in 1947, Roswell, New Mexico, has become a mecca for people fascinated by extraterrestrial phenomenon. So it's only fitting that the city’s police force has uniform patches that are out of this world.

Unveiled on Friday, the new patches feature the official city logo of a flying saucer with a classic beam radiating downward to form the letter “R." The words “Protect and Serve Those That Land Here” form a circle and are separated by two tiny alien faces with large eyes.

Police Chief Lance Bateman said the department recently ordered an initial batch of 500, with the first ones being handed out just this week. The transition to the new patch is expected to be complete later this year.

Bateman said there had been discussions for a while about retiring the previous patch, which had served the department for more than 30 years. When he took office last summer, that was among the feedback he was getting from rank and file, so he pushed forward with the idea.

Employees submitted about a dozen designs, with most including some reference to UFOs and aliens. Top brass whittled that down to four finalists, and employees voted for the winner — designed by Support Services Sgt. Trong Nguyen — in January.

“It was a clear favorite,” the chief told The Associated Press during a phone interview Friday.

The new patch also incorporates New Mexico's official state symbol, which is based on the ancient Zia Pueblo symbol of the sun.

The unveiling of the patch came on the same day that the federal government sought to dispel claims that have captivated public attention for decades. A Pentagon study released Friday stated there was no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence, a conclusion consistent with past U.S. government efforts to assess claims.

For those in Roswell, it has become a way of life, as thousands flock there every year to visit the International UFO Museum and Research Center, or to catch the annual UFO festival. Aliens and UFOs are plastered all over business marquees around town.

“At some point you kind of embrace it,” said Bateman, who was born and raised in Roswell.

Aside from the new patch just being cool, the chief said he hopes it will foster more relationships with the community. There are now more resource officers within Roswell's public schools, and Bateman said he and fellow officers often try to greet students on their way to school in the morning.

“They've done an awesome job with the community,” Bateman said of the police force. “I think we’re only getting better, and this will, I think, only enhance it. It opens conversations for the citizens and us.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/roswell-police-patches-world-flying-012852910.html

Pentagon UFO office developing 'Gremlin' sensors to help identify anomalies in orbit

Mar 9, 2024

The Pentagon's UFO office is developing sensor kits to help it collect data in real time on unidentified objects in the sky or in space.

That's according to Tim Phillips, the acting head of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, a U.S. Department of Defense office aimed at studying unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), a new term for UFOs that encompasses mysterious objects not only in the sky but also underwater or in space.

Phillips said that his office is working with government laboratories and academia to develop a highly portable sensor kit known as the "Gremlin System" that can capture data across multiple spectra, according to a report in DefenseScoop.

Phillips added that the Gremlin System has already proven capable of detecting a wide range of phenomena, including in space. "It's picking up a lot of bats and birds. We're learning a lot about solar flaring," Phillips told a select group of reporters on Thursday (March 7).

"We're really starting to understand what's in orbit around our planet and how we can eliminate those as anomalous objects," he added.

The AARO director said that these Gremlin System sensors could be used to surveil sensitive sites for airspace intrusions, or even keep an eye on U.S. satellites in orbit.

"If we have a national security site and there are objects being reported that trend within restricted airspace, or within a maritime range, or in the proximity of one of our spaceships, we need to understand what that is. And so that's why we're developing a sensor capability that we can deploy in reaction to reports," Phillips said.

AARO plans to present the Gremlin System to Pentagon leaders so that the sensor kits could be deployed in the event of "UAP encounters at militarily significant locations or near U.S. critical infrastructure," DefenseScoop reported.

https://www.space.com/pentagon-ufo-uap-office-aaro-sensors-anomalies-orbit