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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 6 hours ago by cm0002@literature.cafe 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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[–] obbeel@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 5 hours ago (1 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.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

Sure, but it's not "textbooks need to be updated" important.