How Scientists Simulated Jupiter's Wild Winds With a Giant Table and a Garbage Can
Jupiter is intimidating on several levels, not the least of which are the storms swirling on its surface, punctuated by the Giant Red Spot. Now scientists simulating these jets have concluded that they're far from skin deep. Rather, the winds most likely extend thousands of miles below Jupiter's visible atmosphere.
There have been attempts to recreate these jets in a laboratory setting before. For a proper recreation, you need rapid rotation, turbulence, and a "curvature effect" that mimics the impact of the planets' spherical shape. According to UCLA geophysicist Jonathan Aurnou, no prior attempts could get things spinning fast enough or create enough turbulence.
Aurnou's team, which also included collaborators in Marseilles, France, used a table built on air bearings that can spin at 120 revolutions per minute and support a load of approximately 2,200 lbs., big enough to spin a large tank of fluid at high speed in a way that mimics Jupiter's rapid rotation. The scientists then got an industrial-sized garbage can and filled it with 105 gallons of water. They then placed it on the table and started spinning. "The faster it went, the better we mimicked the massively strong effects of rotation and curvature that exists on planets," Aurnou said in a press release.
While spinning, the scientists used a pump below the table to circulate water through the garbage can, creating turbulence. The turbulent energy turned into jets far below the surface of the can, and it only took minutes for the water flow to change into six concentric flows moving in alternating directions.
"This is the first time that anyone has demonstrated that strong jets that look like those on Jupiter can develop in a real fluid," Aurnou said.
Next up is using a supercomputer to further simulate Jupiter's interior, which is undoubtedly as scary as its moon Io's. Aurnou also wants to keep refining the garbage can-and-table system, with the goal of creating a stable layer on top of the water, with the aim of recreating the Red Dot.
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