All
the evidence conspires to suggest that it is. It has long been
recognised that the shining disk of the planet is not a solid,
but a cloud, surface. This impenetrable mass of cloud or vapour
is drawn out in streams or belts from side to side, as the giant
globe turns on its axis once in every ten hours. We cannot say
if, or to what extent, these clouds consist of water-vapour. We
can conclude only that this mantle of Jupiter is "a seething
cauldron of vapours" (Lowell), and that, if the body beneath is
solid, it must be very hot. A large red area, at one time 30,000
miles long, has more or less persisted on the surface for several
decades, and it is generally interpreted, either as a red-hot
surface, or as a vast volcanic vent, reflecting its glow upon the
clouds. Indeed, the keen American observers, with their powerful
telescopes, have detected a cherry-red glow on the edges of the
cloud-belts across the disk; and more recent observation with the
spectroscope seems to prove that Jupiter emits light from its
surface analogous to that of the red stars. The conspicuous
flattening of its poles is another feature that science would
expect in a rapidly rotating liquid globe.
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