Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (GSFC);Science: A. Simon (GSFC), G. Orton (JPL), J. Rogers (Univ. of Cambridge, UK), and M. Wong and I. de Pater (Univ. of California, Berkeley);Acknowledgment: C. Go, H. Hammel (SSI, Boulder, and AURA), and R. Beebe (NMSU)
Jupiter's monster storm, the Great Red Spot, was once so large that three Earths would fit inside it. But new measurements by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the largest storm in our solar system has downsized significantly. The Great Red Spot, which has been raging for at least a hundred years, is only the width of one Earth. What is happening? One possibility is that some unknown activity in the planet's atmosphere may be draining energy and weakening the storm, causing it to shrink. The Hubble images were taken in 1995, 2009, and 2014.
Join Hubble astronomers for further discussion about Jupiter's shrinking Great Red Spot at 4pm EDT on Thursday, May 22, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9coSaxpQ8DQ. Please bring your questions and comments.