Soap-Bubble Jupiter.

Physicists at the University of Bordeaux have produced mini-storms resembling hurricanes in half-spherical soap bubbles. They’ve even produced the soapy equivalent of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. The bubbles, 8 or 10 cm across, are heated at the equator and cooled at the pole. This heat differential sets up turbulence which sometimes can manifest itself as a Red Spot kind of swirl.

According to author Kellay Hamid (h.kellay@cpmoh.u-bordeaux1.fr) one feature that distinguishes the Bordeaux experiment in modeling fluid turbulence from previous efforts is the absence of a lateral wall in the fluid surface, in this case a hemispherical film. (Seychelles et al., Physical Review Letters, upcoming article)