New images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found that the gigantic storm on Jupiter, known as the ‘Great Red Spot’, continues to shrink mysteriously and become more circular.
Scientists have produced new maps of Jupiter, the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system’s outer planets.
The observations are designed to capture a broad range of features, including winds, clouds, storms and atmospheric chemistry.
The Jupiter images have already shown a rare wave, just north of the planet’s equator and a unique filamentary feature in the core of the Great Red Spot not seen previously.
Every time we look at Jupiter, we get tantalising hints that something really exciting is going on.
— Amy Simon, Planetary Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, Maryland
Simon and her colleagues produced two global maps of Jupiter from observations made using Hubble’s high-performance Wide Field Camera 3.
The long axis of this characteristic storm is about 240 kilometres shorter now than it was in 2014. Recently, the storm had been shrinking at a faster-than-usual rate, but the latest change is consistent with the long-term trend.
The Great Red Spot remains more orange than red these days, and its core, which typically has more intense colour, is less distinct than it used to be.
An unusual wispy filament is seen, spanning almost the entire width of the vortex.
The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
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