| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Shrinking, Scientists Baffled
Jupiter’s monster storm, the Great Red Spot, was once so large that three Earths would fit inside it. But new measurements by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the largest storm in our solar system has downsized significantly.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Hammel (Space Science Institute and AURA)
The red spot, which has been raging for at least a hundred years, is only the width of one Earth. What is happening? One possibility is that some unknown activity in the planet’s atmosphere may be draining energy and weakening the storm, causing it to shrink. The Hubble images were taken in 1995, 2009, and 2014.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)
Jupiter’s trademark Great Red Spot — a swirling anticyclonic storm feature larger than Earth — has shrunken to the smallest size ever measured. Astronomers have followed this downsizing since the 1930s.
Video Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon and M. Estacion (STScI)
“Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the Great Red Spot (GRS) is now approximately 10,250 miles across, the smallest diameter we’ve ever measured,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Historic observations as far back as the late 1800s gauged the GRS to be as big as 25,500 miles on its long axis. The NASA Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flybys of Jupiter in 1979 measured the GRS to be 14,500 miles across.
Starting in 2012, amateur observations revealed a noticeable increase in the spot’s shrinkage rate. The GRS’s “waistline” is getting smaller by 580 miles per year. The shape of the GRS has changed from an oval to a circle. The cause behind the shrinking has yet to be explained.
“In our new observations it is apparent that very small eddies are feeding into the storm,” said Simon. “We hypothesized that these may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics and energy of the Great Red Spot.”
Simon’s team plans to study the motions of the small eddies and also the internal dynamics of the GRS to determine if these eddies can feed or sap momentum entering the upwelling vortex.
In the comparison images one Hubble photo was taken in 1995 when the long axis of the GRS was estimated to be 13,020 miles across. In a 2009 photo, the GRS was measured at 11,130 miles across.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, DC.
Join Hubble astronomers for further discussion about Jupiter’s shrinking Great Red Spot at 4pm EDT on Thursday, May 22, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9coSaxpQ8DQ. Please bring your questions and comments.
Contacts and sources:
NASA
ESA
Space Telescope Science Institute
This must be a conspiracy of some kind. Perhaps the lizard aliens from Dulce, NM were involved. Or perhaps that shapeshifter Angelina Jolie? AAAARRRGHHHHHHHH! GOD SAVE US ALL FROM THE SHRINKING RED SPOT!
Reptilian or not, I would certainly like the chance to inspect Ms. Angelina Jolie personally for several hours and make a determination myself to whether she is a shape shifting reptilian or not. I assure I’ll definitely get to the bottom of this accusation.
Is it the Great Red Spot that is shrinking, OR is the
Universe shrinking, because of Judgement Day?
No doubt this is due to climate change brought about by the overuse of fossil gasses on your planet. You Jupiterians should be ashamed of yourselves. You are causing this shrinking of the great red spot by driving around in your oversized Jupitermobiles & your 4 wheel off road JUV’s. But we have a plan that is not only beneficial for all Jupiterians but Earthling’s as well.
As we speak NASA is building a spaceship to transport Al Gore to your planet to straighten all this out. We are very sorry that it has come to this but you asked for it.
After Mr. Gore fixes your red spot shrinkage he will run in your Jupiter planetary election for president. I warn you now. If he is not immediately announced as the winner of the election he will quit shaving and sulk for many years.
Jupiter’s Red Spot is a VORTEX formed by the electrical connections in our Solar system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8EE0p9kx5o
BEN DAVIDSON provides good knowledge. http://www.youtube.com/user/Suspicious0bservers/videos
The vortex models PERFECTLY in the Phi 60 sequence.
nothing new here the spot and the whole band disappeared four years ago for a short time !
and I aint tellin
could it be because Nibiru draws near ? are the powers that be messing with things they shouldn’t be ? who knows.. I do… lol
Torch ^i^
but you can check this out !
http://www.space.com/8462-jupiter-disappearing-cloud-stripe-mystifies-scientists.html
AS it was born so it shall die. They’ve known it was shrinking for years. Who’s baffled?