A true-colour image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot taken by the Juno spacecraft.Jupiter's Great Red Spot (top right) and the surrounding region, as seen from Voyager 1 on March 1, 1979. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.The first record of the Great Red Spot is a drawing made in 1831 by German amateur astronomer Meteorologically, the Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic circulation system—i.e., a high-pressure centre in the planet’s southern hemisphere.
On the west side of the Great Red Spot itself a sliver of red material is being pulled off the periphery. Login Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription.
Two images have been mosaicked together by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill to create this enhanced color composite. JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products atImage credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Second only to the rings of Saturn, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is probably the most iconic planetary feature in the solar system. Cameras carried by the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft revealed in 1979 that the entire system rotates counterclockwise with a period of about seven days, corresponding to wind velocities at its The Great Red Spot is not anchored to any solid surface feature—Jupiter is most likely fluid throughout. History at your fingertips Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Various colours distinguish details seen by Galileo at three different infrared wavelengths and provide information about the relative altitudes of the cloud layers.
The thick line is 0-degrees longitude.
These images the JIRAM instrument aboard NASAs Juno spacecraft took on Dec. 26, 2019, provide the first infrared mapping of Ganymedes northern frontier. Included are the white ovals, observed since the 1930s, and immense areas of turbulence to the left of the Great Red Spot.This article was most recently revised and updated by Categories Swirling in Jupiter's atmosphere for hundreds of years, the Great Red Spot is captured in this pair of close-up images from Juno's JunoCam camera.
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It is generally reddish in colour, slightly oval in shape, and approximately 16,350 km (10,159 miles) wide—large enough to engulf Earth . Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Randal Jackson, Naomi Hartono Features as small as 31 miles (50 kilometers) can be resolved in the images, allowing us to see structure in the interior of the Great Red Spot, as well as the fine texture of the white clouds in the South Tropical Zone below.
Swirling in Jupiter's atmosphere for hundreds of years, the Great Red Spot is captured in this pair of close-up images from Juno's JunoCam camera. The giant storm churns through Jupiter's atmosphere, creating the turbulent flows to its west. When they were taken on Feb. 12, 2019 at 10:24 a.m. PDT (1:24 p.m. EDT) and 10:29 a.m. PDT (1:29 p.m. EDT), Juno was about 43,500 miles (70,000 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops. This image from NASAs Juno spacecraft captures several storms in Jupiters southern hemisphere. Great Red Spot, a long-lived enormous storm system on the planet Jupiter and the most conspicuous feature of its visible cloud surface. What is the Great Red Spot? Instead, it may well be the equivalent of a gigantic hurricane, powered by the condensation of water, ammonia, or both at lower levels in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The giant storm churns through Jupiter's atmosphere, creating the turbulent flows to its west. Features The north pole of Ganymede can be seen in center of this annotated image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASAs Juno spacecraft on Dec. 26, 2019. Search Britannica On the west side of the Great Red Spot itself a sliver of red material is being pulled off the periphery. This is a recent, frequent, phenomenon first observed in ground-based data in 2017. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm that's about twice as wide as Earth, circling the planet in its southern hemisphere. Over the last few years, the GRS has been sporting a rich, orange-red color, made even more distinct by the whitish "hollow" that often surrounds it. Check out Britannica's new site for parents! Alternatively, it may draw its energy from the smaller eddies that merge with it or from the high-speed currents on either side of it. With tumultuous winds peaking at about 400 mph, the Great Red Spot has been swirling wildly over Jupiter’s skies for the past 150 years—maybe even much longer than that. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.
Unlike the rings, which aren’t going away any time soon, recent observations of an apparent unraveling of the GRS suggest big changes in …