Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Is Shapeshifting in Ways ‘Never Identified Before’

A monolithic tempest has been raging connected Jupiter for centuries, and, for the astir part, has appeared precise serious. A caller bid of elaborate images, however, revealed that the celebrated reddish cyclone tin get a small squiggly, bulging into antithetic shapes and sizes implicit a abbreviated play of time.

Astronomers utilized the Hubble abstraction scope to look astatine Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) from December 2023 to March 2024, and they observed the monolithic tempest changing dimensions implicit the 90-day period. The crushed down this unexpected shapeshifting is unknown, but it revealed that the celebrated reddish tempest is not arsenic unchangeable arsenic it seemed. The results of the Hubble observations are elaborate successful a study published Wednesday successful The Planetary Science Journal. 

Eight Hubble images showing Jupiter’s Great Red Spot implicit a play of 90 days. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC)

Using Hubble’s observations, the squad of astronomers down the caller survey measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity implicit 1 afloat oscillation cycle. The combined images enactment similar a time-lapse of the storm’s changing behavior, revealing its celebrated reddish oculus varying successful size, portion its halfway gets brighter erstwhile the Great Red Spot is astatine its largest during the 90-day cycle.

“This is truly the archetypal clip we’ve had the due imaging cadence of the GRS. With Hubble’s precocious solution we tin accidental that the GRS is definitively squeezing successful and retired astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic it moves faster and slower,” Amy Simon, a researcher astatine NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center successful Greenbelt, Maryland, pb writer of the caller study, said successful a statement. “While we knew its question varies somewhat successful its longitude, we didn’t expect to spot the size oscillate arsenic well. As acold arsenic we know, it’s not been identified before.”

The Red Spot is the largest known tempest successful the star system, taking up one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. It’s truthful large that it could swallow Earth into its swirling oval of clouds, measuring astatine astir doubly the size of our planet. When it was archetypal observed, the Great Red Spot extended implicit 24,200 miles (39,000 kilometers) but it has been shrinking ever since. Today, the tempest stretches arsenic wide arsenic 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) and has go much rounded successful shape.

Hubble has been observing the Great Red Spot shrinking implicit the past 10 years, and the squad down the survey predicts that it volition go much unchangeable arsenic it gets smaller successful size. “Right present it’s over-filling its latitude set comparative to the upwind field. Once it shrinks wrong that set the winds volition truly beryllium holding it successful place,” Simon said.

Unlike hurricanes connected Earth, the Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, which suggests that it’s a high-pressure system. However, knowing the mechanics down Jupiter’s past tempest tin assistance scientists amended recognize hurricanes connected Earth wrong a broader cosmic context, arsenic good arsenic the meteorology connected different planets.

The Great Red Spot has been known to alteration its size, color, and shape, but the caller observations uncover a batch of changes from time to day. “As it accelerates and decelerates, the GRS is pushing against the windy pitchy streams to the northbound and southbound of it,” Mike Wong, a researcher astatine the University of California astatine Berkeley, and co-author of the study, said successful a statement. “It’s akin to a sandwich wherever the slices of breadstuff are forced to bulge retired erstwhile there’s excessively overmuch filling successful the middle.”

Although the iconic tempest was archetypal spotted successful 1664, scientists are inactive amazed by its mysterious, unusual behaviour that, truthful far, they haven’t been capable to explain. There’s inactive much to larn astir Jupiter’s erratic storm, and luckily Hubble volition enactment connected the lookout.