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This image of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran © CC NC SA)
Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot is regarded as the king of all storms occurring in our solar system. The oval-shaped, crimson-coloured storm system has a diameter that stretches over 16,000 km across, meaning it is large enough to easily swallow the Earth whole!
Regarded as one of the largest storms in our solar system, human beings have observed it for over 150 years. However, it was only a decade ago that the Hubble Space Telescope began monitoring it.
Now, by studying the 10-year-long data collected by the telescope on its regular check of the storm, some apparent changes have come to light.
The findings reveal that the winds are gradually accelerating across the outermost edge—known as a high-speed ring—of this enormous storm system. But on the flip side, the winds tracking over the innermost region of the spot are moving significantly more slowly.
The wind speed at the boundaries of the oval spot’s has increased by up to 8% between 2009 and 2020. These crimson-coloured clouds of the storm are now spinning in counterclockwise motion at an enormous speed of over 643.7 km per hour!
When calculated, the changes in the wind speed have been quite minute, measuring to less than 2.57 km per hour per Earth year, as per 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 Centre.
Monitoring storms beyond our planet is an arduous task for scientists. It was only due to the keen eyes of the space telescope that researchers were able to track the changes occurring over the storm.
“When I initially saw the results, I asked ‘Does this make sense?’ No one has ever seen this before. But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble’s longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible,” said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, and the lead analyst of the study.
To cross-check the major chunk of data obtained from reports of Hubble, the team took to data analysis. This approach was helpful to keep track of tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) of each observation done by the telescope.
But why is it important to study the storm systems of other worlds or even know its speed?
For years, the storm has been shrouded with clouds of mystery as to what helps to maintain this system. Therefore, studying these slight changes can be helpful in understanding how this storm is fueled and maintains this energy.
Furthermore, 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 findings of this study were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and can be accessed here.
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