When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph.
The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself.
The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers, but lacks a solid surface, which would dissipate the storm's energy, much as happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in high-resolution Wide Field and Planetary Cameras 1 & 2 images of Jupiter obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and presented here by the Hubble Heritage Project team. The mosaic presents a series of pictures of the Red Spot obtained by Hubble between 1992 and 1999.
Astronomers study weather phenomena on other planets in order to gain a greater understanding of our own Earth's climate. Lacking a solid surface, Jupiter provides us with a laboratory experiment for observing weather phenomena under very different conditions than those prevailing on Earth. This knowledge can also be applied to places in the Earth's atmosphere that are over deep oceans, making them more similar to Jupiter's deep atmosphere.
The Hubble images were originally collected by Amy Simon (Cornell U.), Reta Beebe (NMSU), Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute, MIT), and their collaborators, and have been prepared for presentation by the Hubble Heritage Team.
Credits
The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA) and Amy Simon (Cornell U.)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Jupiter's Great Red Spot |
| Object Description | High-pressure Cyclonic Storm on Jupiter |
| Distance | 5.2 Astronomical Units (778 million km or 483 million miles ) |
| Dimensions | 142,984 km or 88,789 miles (at equator). Diameter of Great Red Spot: 24,800 km or 15,400 miles (lengthwise). Visual Magnitude: -2.6 magnitude (at opposition) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Principal Astronomers: A. Simon (Cornell U.), R. Beebe (NMSU), and collaborators, H. B. Hammel (Space Science Institute, MIT), R. Beebe (NMSU), J. T. Clarke (U. Michigan) , R. A. West (JPL), A. Storrs (STScI), and collaborators, H. Bond, C. Christian, J. English, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, A. Kinney, Z. Levay, K. Noll (The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC and HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | May 92 (WFPC), Jul 94, Aug 94, Feb 95, Oct 95, Oct 96, Apr 97, and Jun 99 (WFPC2) |
| Filters | F410M, F439 (B), F555W (V), F673N [SII], F718, F953N [SIII] |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
