Jupiter's Great Red Spot reveals signs of water, raise hopes life could exist there

NASA scientists peering deep inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot -- a storm that has been raging on the planet for over 350 years -- have detected signs of water above the planet's deepest clouds.

The pressure of the water combined with their measurements of another oxygen-bearing gas, carbon monoxide, imply that Jupiter has two to nine times more oxygen than the Sun, researchers said.

The findings, published in the Astronomical Journal, support theoretical and computer-simulation models that have predicted abundant water on Jupiter.

The revelation was stirring given that the team's experiment could have easily failed. The Great Red Spot is full of dense clouds, which makes it hard for electromagnetic energy to escape and teach astronomers anything about the chemistry within.

The data collected will supplement the information NASA's Juno spacecraft is gathering as it circles the planet from north to south once every 53 days.

Among other things, Juno is looking for water with its own infrared spectrometer and with a microwave radiometer that can probe deeper than anyone has seen -- to 100 bars, or 100 times the atmospheric pressure at Earth's surface.

If Juno returns similar water findings, it could open a new window into solving the water problem.

Juno is the latest spacecraft tasked with finding water, likely in gas form, on this giant gaseous planet.

Jupiter is thought to be the first planet to have formed by siphoning the elements left over from the formation of the Sun as our star coalesced from an amorphous nebula into the fiery ball of gases we see today.

Read the full report of NASA : Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Can customs and border officials search your phone? Know your rights

The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures

 

LATEST NEWS - A NASA scientist heading home to the U.S. said he was detained in January at a Houston airport, where Customs and Border Protection officers pressured him for access to his work phone and its potentially sensitive contents.

Last month, CBP agents checked the identification of passengers leaving a domestic flight at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport during a search for an immigrant with a deportation order.

And in October, border agents seized phones and other work-related material from a Canadian photo-journalist. They blocked him from entering the U.S. after he refused to unlock the phones, citing his obligation to protect his sources. Know your rights.

These and other recent incidents have revived confusion and alarm over what powers border officials actually have and, perhaps more importantly, how to know when they are overstepping their authority.

The unsettling fact is that border officials have long had broad powers — many people just don't know about them. Border officials, for instance, have search powers that extend 100 air miles inland from any external boundary of the U.S. That means border agents can stop and question people at fixed checkpoints dozens of miles from U.S. borders. They can also pull over motorists whom they suspect of a crime as part of "roving" border patrol operations.

Sowing even more uneasiness, ambiguity around the agency's search powers — especially over electronic devices — has persisted for years as courts nationwide address legal challenges raised by travelers, privacy advocates and civil-rights groups.(read more...)