Why Jupiter is Jinxed & Saturn Stinks? FEBRUARY 2026 Musings.

Facts are supposed to provide us with a sense of clarity and certainty. But sometimes they can be misleading too, if we just look at them superficially. Take the case of Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in our solar system.

Let’s take Jupiter. To a superstitious person on Jupiter the Sun would look like a blazing dot and would seem to follow two distinctively strange elliptical orbital patterns and hence the person may think the planet was jinxed. This is the consequence of a unique location of the Sun-Jupiter center of mass (barycenter). The location is outside the Sun, making them perform a loose binary dance rather than a simple planet-star orbit.

Now consider Saturn. Its core consists mostly of hydrogen and helium, both of which are odorless, while its atmosphere has methane, ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, water vapor, phosphene, ethane, acetylene, propane. Its upper atmosphere has ammonia clouds that would smell like strong cleaning fluid, while deeper layers with hydrogen sulfide might smell faintly of rotten eggs. To a human being trying to penetrate this atmosphere, the planet would stink! But only if the human olfactory sense can survive the journey through its clouds.

In this series of blog posts during 2026, I hope to discuss facts that may seem strange at first glance, but which could otherwise be explained. I will focus on one factoid every month.

The factoid for this month is Dolphins Have Names.

Dolphins use unique "names" for each other in the form of distinct signature whistles, which function like human names for identification and communication, allowing them to call, recognize, and even remember specific individuals.

This is indeed a sophisticated communication skill unique among non-human mammals. Elephants and Parrots are also understood to have similar capabilities.

This ability to use individually specific vocal labels for others is considered a remarkable trait, highlighting the advanced social intelligence of dolphins.

Each dolphin develops its own whistle, often learning it from its mother, and other dolphins copy these whistles to address or call out to them, like how humans use names. 

Unique Whistles: Each dolphin creates a distinct whistle that serves as its personal identifier.

Learning & Imitation: Young dolphins learn their signature whistles from their mothers and can imitate others' whistles to call them, demonstrating complex social learning.

Addressing Others: When a dolphin wants to get another's attention, it mimics that specific whistle, acting as a call or "name".

Memory & Social Bonds: Dolphins remember the names (whistles) of their close allies, using them to maintain social bonds and form teams, even remembering cooperators from the past.

What is still not clearly known is how they avoid having the same names – it would be silly for the bottlenecks’ bromance if there was a single whistle for two individuals!

Some researchers say that dolphins also use the taste of urine of fellow-dolphins to identify individuals. A case of two-factor authentication? Cybersecurity specialists could perhaps take a clue.