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'Textbooks will need to be updated': Jupiter is smaller and flatter than we thought, Juno spacecraft reveals (www.livescience.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/space@mander.xyz
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Jupiter is slightly smaller and flatter than scientists thought for decades, a new study finds.

Researchers used radio data from the Juno spacecraft to refine measurements of the solar system's largest planet. Although the differences between the current and previous measurements are small, they are improving models of Jupiter's interior and of other gas giants like it outside the solar system, the team reported Feb. 2 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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[+] 25 points 9 months ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I think this is important. Many science history textbooks highlight that the ancients got the measures right by 5% off or that the modern era scientists got the quantity of oxidation (phlogistic) off by 5%. So it's important to note that we are actually advancing in Science and that we are finding new horizons, not just repeating what the ancients or modern era scientists did.

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    • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I fucking knew it. Everyone knows that the Earth is round, but I just knew that Jupiter was flat!

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    • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Wouldn't something of that size necessarily turn spherical due to its mass?

    Or is there enough inertia from the planet spinning that it bulges at the equator?

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    • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    That’s really interesting, I wonder how many other planets might be bigger or smaller than scientists originally thought. It would cool to know if any are in the future, with all the advances in science and technology I’m sure we could know very soon into the near future, maybe a few years from now.

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