The Great Red Spot Of Jupiter

This is more about how information works. It has been added to the compound posting on this blog, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe", January 2016.

One of the most prominent features of our Solar System is the Great Red Spot Of the planet Jupiter. It is a circular storm, like a hurricane, that has been going on for centuries. The Great Red Spot is larger than the earth.

The Great Red Spot is centered at about 22 degrees south latitude on Jupiter. Because of it's rapid spin Jupiter has a very turbulent atmosphere. But nowhere else on the planet is anything like the Great Red Spot. One thing that has never been explained is why the Great Red Spot is where it is on Jupiter.

My concept of how information flows through the universe, from the lowest to the highest levels, explains it simply. All structures in the universe are composed of information. The higher-level structures must be composed of the same information as the lower-level structures because there is no new information from anywhere else.

An obvious example of this is that the Solar System is made of atoms. The orbits of the planets around the sun are based on the same information as the orbitals of the electrons in atoms. It has to be this way because there is no new information from anywhere else.

This provides a neat and simple explanation of why the Great Red Spot is located at about 22 degrees latitude on Jupiter. It is because of the way information works.

Most of Jupiter's atmosphere consists of hydrogen and helium, which are the two lightest elements. But there are also significant amounts of methane and ammonia. 

Methane and ammonia are both molecules, which are combinations of atoms. A molecule of methane consists of one atom of carbon and four of hydrogen, which gives it a chemical formula of CH4. A molecule of ammonia consists of one atom of nitrogen and three of hydrogen, which gives it a chemical formula of NH3.

The atomic or molecular weight or mass of an atom or molecule is simply the total number of nucleons, protons or neutrons, in the nucleus. The nucleus of an atom of hydrogen has only one nucleon, a proton. The nucleus of carbon has twelve nucleons, six protons and six neutrons. The nucleus of nitrogen has fourteen nucleons, seven protons and seven neutrons. 

There are some isotopes of these elements, with the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons, but these isotopes are rare relative to the figures given here.

This means that methane has a molecular mass, or molecular weight, of 16 and ammonia has a molecular mass of 17.

The electrons in atoms have an electric charge that is equal, but opposite, to that on the proton. But electrons are so light in mass that they are not even counted in the atomic or molecular mass. A proton has 1,836 times the mass of an electron.

A neutron is not exactly of the same mass as a proton. A neutron is essentially an electron crunched into a proton during nuclear fusion. The opposite charges of the electron and proton cancel each other out so that the neutron has a neutral charge, a net charge of zero. This means that the neutron is slightly heavier than the proton, 1,837 times the mass of the electron instead of 1,836. But this slight difference is not enough to be taken into account for the atomic or molecular mass.

What do you notice here, considering how information works in my theory? Most of the atmosphere of Jupiter consists of hydrogen, which has an atomic mass of 1. But methane has a molecular mass of 16, and ammonia of 17, and this is information.

The explanation of why the Great Red Spot is centered at about 22 degrees latitude is thus easily explained. It is because of the way information works. 22 degrees is about 1 / 16 or 1 / 17 of a complete circle.