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One minute, you're setting up
a new space station orbiting Jupiter.
The next,
you're plunging right
into the middle of a giant,
red cyclone of death.
The Great Red Spot
is the biggest storm in the Solar System.
At about 16,300 km (10,000 mi) wide,
it’s large enough to swallow the Earth whole.
It's a lot like a hurricane.
Only instead of lasting a few weeks,
this giant storm has been rampaging for at least 300 years.
And instead of forming from warm air,
this monstrosity gets its energy
from the dense atmosphere of Jupiter.
Fueled by an abundance of the planet's hydrogen and helium,
the Great Red Spot
reaches 500 km (310 mi) into its atmosphere.
Oops. We should have built that space station a little further away.
That's OK, I think I you know we're not going to end this here.
I'll tell you more in a minute.
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which is much closer than the Red Spot.
OK, well, first, how on Earth would you even get to Jupiter?
Well, if you traveled light and followed the route of the Voyager spacecraft,
you'd arrive on Jupiter in
just under 600 days.
But this journey
wouldn’t be as simple as
just pointing yourself at
what appears to be a very bright star in the night sky.
Roaming the Solar System in a spaceship
is a little more complicated than that.
You see, the Voyager never intended to land on Jupiter,
only to pass it
on the way to interstellar space.
So if you followed Voyager's path,
you'd whip right past your target.
For this to work,
you'd need to follow the lead of the Galileo spacecraft
launched in 1989.
Just like Galileo, you'd swing by Venus
and then back around Earth for a little gravity assist.
This way, you'd have the right speed to park in Jupiter's orbit.
Only the trip would now take you six years
instead of 600 days.
By the time you reached Jupiter’s moon Europa,
the planet would appear 22 times larger to you than
a full Moon did back on Earth.
And you'd still need to get a little closer.
Now you'd be mesmerized by the planet’s swirls and stripes.
These are colored red, brown and white
thanks to the sunlight reflecting off massive clouds
made of ammonia and ammonium sulfide.
Finally, you’d feast your eyes on the Great Red Spot.
A giant twirl of the atmosphere rotating counter-clockwise.
It looks a lot bigger than you could imagine.
But before you even begin your descent
into the great red unknown,
your life would already be in grave danger.
Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field
would shower you with intense radiation.
I mean, luckily, you’d be equipped with a highly advanced protective suit.
But it wouldn't be able to protect you from everything.
As you approached the storm
you’d realize that you’ve made a big mistake in your mission prep.
Your plan was to build your space station
at the same altitude as the International Space Station,
400 km (248 mi) into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Yeah, except this storm is as deep as 40 Mariana Trenches,
so it would swallow you up
before you could finish your project.
But now it's too late.
You'd be plummetting through the storm.
And you'd get your first real glimpse of
how powerful it is.
You’d be thrown around at wind speeds
of about 400 km/h (250 mph).
To give you a sense of how insanely powerful that would be,
hurricanes are ranked into five categories based on strength.
A category 1 storm has wind speeds
up to 153 km/h (95 mph),
strong enough to snap large trees.
In the middle,
a category 3 hurricane can hit
208 km/h (129 mph).
These storms could result in devastating damage,
including pulling roofs right off of houses.
Lastly, a category 5 hurricane back on Earth
has wind speeds of 252 km/h (157 mph) or higher.
That packs enough of a punch to collapse buildings.
But that's still only half as strong as
the winds in the Great Red Spot.
Thankfully, your body can withstand wind gusts
as high as 800 km/h (500 mph).
But that doesn't mean it would be
refreshing in any way.
Without the protective face gear,
your skin would look as if it was melting
straight off of your face.
So make sure to hold on to that helmet tight.
Not that you’d be able to do much else
besides staying on a violent downward trajectory at this point.
As you were falling into Jupiter,
you'd see how clouds around you would change.
First, you'd get a real close-up view
of those ammonia and ammonium sulfide clouds
you were mesmerized by before.
Then you’d pass through clouds made of water,
just like the ones on Earth.
The temperature
and pressure all around you would be changing too.
Sadly, none of this would be comfortable for you,
especially not at the same time.
Where the atmospheric pressure is
similar to that of sea level back on Earth,
it would be a very chilly -110 °C (-160 °F).
And where the temperature was bearable,
the pressure would be eight times greater than
what it was back on Earth.
Now, the chances of surviving up to this point
would be slim.
I mean, look no further than the fate suffered
by the Galileo probe.
As it descended further and further into Jupiter,
it encountered extremely high temperatures.
And what do you think happens to a probe in that environment?
Yeah, it vaporizes.
Without a spacesuit strong enough to withstand
all that heat and pressure,
you’d end up disintegrating
just like the probe.
Now you’d be one with the gas giant forever.
But, hey, things could be worse.
I mean, you could have fallen into a black hole.
But that’s a story for another WHAT IF.