Vortices on Jupiter, captured by NASA’s Juno mission in 2022
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift
Stunning patterns in Jupiter’s atmosphere have been replicated more accurately than ever before in the lab – using a rotating tub filled with water.
Michael Le Bars at Aix-Marseille University in France and his colleagues wanted to know how the swirls and whorls on Jupiter’s surface connect to what is happening deep inside the planet. Instead of exactly replicating the planet’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere, they turned to experiments with water.
They built a cylindrical tank 1 metre across, filled it with water, then set it…
