Lab experiment makes Jovian stripes in spinning water
MAY 12, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024324
Science : Jupiter’s gas is thought to occupy cylindrical zones that are nested around the planet’s axis and rotate at different rates. Compositional stratification and the planet’s spherical shape would give rise to the planet’s famous stripes, but what is responsible for creating the cylindrical zones in the first place? A new lab experiment by a team from Paris and Göttingen, Germany, has found support for one answer: the tides exerted by Jupiter’s moons. The experiment involved water, a flexible silicon container, metal rollers, plastic tracers, and lasers.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
