Out out damn spot! Don't know how many of you have been following the new black spot on Jupiter, nor how many of you followed the remote but scientifically plausible scenario of the crashing Galileo spacecraft creating a nuclear detonation in the Jovian atmosphere (one of those things that I liken to particle accelerators accidentally ending the universe - theoretically possible, though highly improbable). Anyway, here's a well-written article exploring a possible link between the two, with some pretty solid physics behind it. The author is Richard Hoagland, the former NASA man who is constantly making waves with his theories on artificial structures on Mars (which, by the way, are fascinating explorations of the current collective psyche) and he does a good job with this. Very even-handed until the end, when he gets a bit conspiratorial (though if you've followed his story it's an understandable reaction from his vision of events - but why bother with that caveat, as it is simply a universal truth?)