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This image of Jupiter’s iconic Big Red Spot and surrounding turbulent areas was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
(NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran © CC NC SA)
Jupiter’s famous big red spot is considered the king of all storms that occur in our solar system. The oval-shaped, purple-colored storm system has a diameter that spans over 16,000 km, which means it is large enough to easily swallow the entire Earth!
Considered one of the greatest storms in our solar system, humans have observed it for over 150 years. However, only a decade ago the Hubble Space Telescope began monitoring it.
Now, studying the 10-year data collected by the telescope during its regular storm monitoring, some noticeable changes have emerged.
The results reveal that the winds are gradually accelerating through the outermost edge – known as the high speed ring – of this enormous storm system. But on the other hand, the winds that move over the innermost region of the spot move much more slowly.
The wind speed at the boundaries of the oval spots increased by up to 8% between 2009 and 2020. These purple colored storm clouds are now spinning counterclockwise at a tremendous speed of over 643.7 km per hour!
When calculated, the changes in wind speed were fairly minute, measuring less than 2.57 km per hour per Earth year, according to the statement.
“We’re talking about such a small change that if you didn’t have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn’t know it happened. With Hubble, we have the precision we need to spot a trend,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Monitoring storms beyond our planet is a daunting task for scientists. It was only thanks to the sharp eyes of the space telescope that the researchers were able to track the changes that occurred during the storm.
“When I saw the results for the first time, I asked ‘Does this make sense? No one has ever seen this before. But it’s something only Hubble can do. Hubble’s longevity and continuous observations make this revelation possible, ”said Michael Wong of the University of California at Berkeley and the study’s lead analyst.
To cross-check most of the data obtained from the Hubble reports, the team performed data analysis. This approach has been useful in tracking tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) of each observation made by the telescope.
But why is it important to study storm systems from other worlds or even to know its speed?
For years, the storm has been shrouded in clouds of mystery as to what helps keep this system going. Therefore, studying these slight changes can be helpful in understanding how this storm is fueled and maintains that energy.
Moreover, studying them also provides us with invaluable information about the gas giants of our galaxy. Apart from Jupiter, Neptune is also known to support mysterious storm systems.
The results of this study were recently published in the journal Geophysical research letters and is accessible here.
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