Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is deep, meaning it may persist even though it is shrinking.
Measuring in at 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width (as of April 3, 2017) Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 1.3 times as wide as Earth.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go
Little bits of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot seem to be flaking off. Is it a sign of the demise of this enigmatic red cloud, or just a consequence of atmospheric chaos we can’t see from above?
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran
The Great Red Spot has remained an essentially constant feature of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere for at least the past several hundred years. How can a storm persist for so long?
Pentagon of vortices. Mosaic of infrared images of Jupiter’s south pole.
NASA/SWRI/JPL/ASI/INAF/IAPS
NASA revealed today that the iconic Great Red Spot on Jupiter has shrunk to its smallest size ever – and astronomers have no idea why. The Great Red Spot is a giant anticyclone storm that has been raging…