Majestic Jupiter, the warlord of our solar system, is putting forward his best *. A sharp new image from the Hubble Space Telescope Represents the vast, ever-evolving climate of the giant planet – reflecting both short and long term changes.
In the northern Golisfire, disturbing clouds could signal a new hurricane, while in the south, a long hurricane is just below and half the size of the Great Red Spot is slowly changing from white to red.
If that’s not enough, on the left we also have a photobom of Ice Moon Europa, the target of our search for outside life.
The Great Red Spot is the most famous of Jupiter’s storms, and is the most striking feature in this new picture. It’s a really big storm, moving towards Anticlockwise, and we think it’s been almost 350 years.
(NASA, ESA, A. Simon / Goddard Space Flight Center, MH Wong / University of California, Berkeley and OPL team)
In the last few decades, the great red spot seems to be shrinking, a mystery that has puzzled scientists, but it is still huge; Currently, it covers 15,800 kilometers (9,818 miles). It is below 16,350 kilometers (10,159 miles) In 2017, But still significantly larger than Earth 12,742 kilometers (7917.5-miles) diameter.
Recently, the contraction of the Great Red Spot has slowed, but not completely stopped.
Just below it is a storm called the Oval B.A. It is much smaller than the Great Red Spot, but in its own right. This Formed in the late 1990’s From three small storms that have been warming up for 60 years, and have been accelerating ever since.
Interestingly, it started its new merged life as a white storm. Then, in 2006, scientists noticed that the color was changing Red like its big cousin. It’s not like you can see. It turned white over the years. But Hubble’s new picture shows that the white color was not permanent. Oval BAs are turning red again.
It will be interesting to see in the future, to determine if there is a poem or reason behind these color changes, but it may be many years before it is possibly understood.
(NASA, ESA, A. Simon / Goddard Space Flight Center, MH Wong / University of California, Berkeley and OPL team)
In the northern Golisfire, at mid-latitude, a very bright white storm, which travels at about 560 kilometers per hour (350 miles per hour), passes through a plume. As you probably understand, storms come and go all the time on Jupiter, but it looks different.
Small, dark cyclonic clamps – rotating anticlockwise – running behind it, embedded in plums. We haven’t seen it before, and scientists think it could be a long-term storm, like the Great Red Spot and the Oval BA in the South.
There is definitely a lot for astronomers to sink their teeth into as they try to understand Jupiter’s wild and incredible atmosphere. But it is also a wonderful reminder of the beauty and wonder of our little corner of the universe.
*Jupiter has the best side in every way.
