Hubbles Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot
Explanation:
What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot?
Gas giant
Jupiter is the solar system's
largest world with about 320 times the mass
of planet Earth.
Jupiter is home to one of the largest and longest lasting storm systems known,
the
Great
Red Spot (GRS), visible to the left.
The GRS is so large it could swallow Earth, although it has been shrinking.
Comparison with historical notes indicate that
the storm
spans only about one third of the surface area it had 150 years ago.
NASA's
Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy
(OPAL) program has been monitoring the storm more recently using the
Hubble Space
Telescope.
The featured Hubble OPAL image shows
Jupiter as it appeared in 2016,
processed in a way that makes red hues appear quite vibrant.
Modern
GRS data indicate that the storm continues to constrict its surface area, but
is also becoming
slightly taller, vertically.
No one knows the future of the
GRS, including the possibility that if the shrinking
trend continues, the GRS might one day even do what
smaller
spots on Jupiter have done --
disappear
completely.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
