Jupiter

The Great Red Spot

is the most well known characteristic of the planet

Jupiter's atmosphere has a zig-zag pattern of twelve jet streams which make up its signature pastel-toned bands. Earth, by comparison, has only two jet streams.

The Great Red Spot is sandwiched between two of these jets streams, forcing the winds that power those perimeter winds to deflect around the spot.

The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm (which means it spins the other way to the rest of the gas)

It is situated 22° south of Jupiter's equator, which has lasted for at least 180 years and possibly as long as 345 years or more.

reat Red Spot was first discovered in the 1600’s by astronomer Robert Hooke.

This storm is so big you could fit 3 Earths within it!

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have discovered that the size of the storm has decreased 15% between 1996 and 2006.

Jupiter

This is a video of Voyager 1 approach to this colossal planet. These pictures were taken in 1979.

I think this video is amazing

Time Travel

Grandfather Paradox

Imagine a man travelled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveller's grandmother. As a result, one of the traveller's parents (and by extension the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time after all, which means the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveller would have been conceived allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather.

Jupiter

Jupiter has at least 63 moons! (and more are being discovered all the time)

These include the 4 main moons called Lo, Europa, Ganymede and Callista. These are referred to as the Galilean Moons because they were first discovered by Galileo Galilie in 1610

The names of the fours moons come from the lovers of Zeus from Greek mythology.

Here is a picture to show the scale of the moons of Jupiter and other planets.

Lo

Is the inner most of the four largest moons. It has over 400 actvive volcanoes and is the most geologically active object in the solar system. It has mountains that are taller than Mount Everest!

Europa

Europa is only slightly smaller than our moon. It is one of the smoothest objects in the solar system due to the layer of ice on the surface. Below this ice is about 100 kilometers of water which is exciting because this could be a good place to find extraterrestrial life ! Aliens !

Life in this Ocean could be similar to life found in Earths deep ocean were life is abundant even without natural light.

Ganymede

Ganymede is the largest natural satellite in the solar system. Its bigger than Mercury. It is also an ice covered moon. It is also the only natural satellite that has its own magnetic field.

Callisto

Is the last Galileon moon and is also the second largest of the four. Callisto has been considered the most suitable place for a human base for future exploration of the Jupiter system because it is furthest from the intense radiation of Jupiter.

Time Travel

There are 4 main dimensions.

Forward and Backward. Left and Right. Up and down and Time. These are the dimensions of 'Time and Space'. Because we are so used to the main 3 dimensions we find it hard to comprehend that time is also dimension which isn't fixed in a straight line, from start to finish.

The same as if there were a world where there were only the first 2 dimensions, if you placed a 3D object in there world they would be very confused by it.

Not many people realise it but the 'space age' made it possible to cross the fourth dimension there are allready time travellers amoung us. Such as Sergei Krikalev (picture below) who is the world record holder for space flight orbiting earth on the russian space station MIA for 803 days. This space station orbits the earth at 16,000 miles per hour. Having spent so long going so fast means he is also the world record holder for time travell. He has moved forward in time, only by a fraction of a second. But he is still technically a time traveller!

Time Travel

Dr. Ronald Mallet is a Physicist who is a professor at the University of Connecticut. He has invented a set of equations that allows him to build a time machine. This machine uses Einstiens Theory of relativity which allows you to manipulate space an time. Mallet proposes to use light to manipulate and twist time. He only proposes to send back sub-atomic particles of information. But if it works it would be possible in the future to send back humans.

But this doesn't mean that we would be able to go back to see the pyramids being built. You could only go back to the point were the time machine was turned on.

Which is exciting because if he builds it and it works! He could receive information as soon as he turns it on from a future self.

Giant Tortoise

Life Span

One of the main reasons i love giant tortoises is because they live for the longest.

The oldest Giant Tortoise was believed to be Tu'i Malila who died at the age of 188 and just behind that Harriet who died at the age of 167.

But Adwaita was the oldest Giant Tortoise. He was a pet of Robert Clive who was a British Soldier who was credited for securing India in the 18th century.

There was a dispute regarding the age of Adwaita. However, now Adwaita's shell has beencarbon dated, determining his age to be around 255. This makes Adwaita one of the oldest creatures of modern times, beating Harriet by 80 years, and Tu'i Malila by 67 years.

Adwaita means 'one and only'

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Giant Tortoises can reach a huge sizes, they can weigh as much as 300 kg (660 lbs) and can grow to be 1.3 m (4 ft) long.

The biggest population of Giant Tortoise today is in the Seychelles. Where there is approx. 152,000. Which is good news!

Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Réunion, the Galápagos Islands, Sulawesi, Timor, Flores and Java are the islands where Giant Tortoises live / lived.