{"id":774475,"date":"2023-11-25T08:57:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T13:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=774475"},"modified":"2023-11-25T08:57:52","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T13:57:52","slug":"jupiters-great-red-spot-is-shrinking-see-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=774475","title":{"rendered":"Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot is shrinking! See photos"},"content":{"rendered":"


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View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Makrem Larnaout in Tunis, Tunisia, captured this image of Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot on November 20, 2023. Thank you, Makrem! People have been observing the Great Red Spot since at least 1830, but it has changed over time. The earliest images show it larger and more oblong. Today\u2019s Great Red Spot is smaller and rounder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot is shrinking<\/h3>\n

Jupiter is a gas giant planet with an atmosphere that teems with whorls and bands. The most famous feature on Jupiter is its stormy Great Red Spot, which has raged on the planet for hundreds of years. It\u2019s a counterclockwise-moving storm \u2013 an anticyclone \u2013 with winds as high as 300 miles (483 km) per hour. But the Great Red Spot is shrinking. The storm we see today is smaller and rounder than what observers photographed and sketched in the past. <\/p>\n

Why does the Great Red Spot last so long? Well, without surface features, the storms on Jupiter don\u2019t encounter friction like on Earth. Anyone who lives by a mountain knows that such features can cause storms to dump rain on one side and then dry up by the time they reach the other side. There are no such influences on Jupiter\u2019s storms, so they rage for decades and centuries.<\/p>\n

So, why is the Great Red Spot shrinking? Researchers aren\u2019t sure. You can read more about it here.<\/p>\n

Images of Jupiter\u2019s iconic storm from hundreds of years ago<\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t know exactly how long people have seen the Great Red Spot. Robert Hooke may have spotted it in 1664. But some people believe he was looking at a different storm. The Great Red Spot we see today may also be different from the storm observers saw in the 1600s. Below is a painting from 1711 showing the first depiction of the Great Red Spot as red.<\/p>\n

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This is the artist Donato Creti\u2019s 1711 painting titled \u201cJupiter.\u201d It was the first depiction of the Great Red Spot as red in color. Its large size more closely resembles a full moon. Image via Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From 1831 to 1879, there are 60 recorded observations of Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot. From then on, observers have been continuously monitoring it. Below is a sketch from 1881, showing how large and oblong it was at that time.<\/p>\n

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This sketch by Thomas Gwyn Elger shows his view of Jupiter and the Great Red Spot from 1881. Jupiter is at the top in this sketch because the artist replicated his inverted view through a telescope. Image via Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More recent observations<\/h3>\n

Here are more comparisons of the Great Red Spot \u2013 then and now \u2013 from photographic evidence. From an observation at Lick Observatory in 1891 (in Damian Peach\u2019s post), to the Pioneer 10 and Voyager flybys of the 1970s, you can see for yourself that the storm has shrunken and taken on a rounder appearance over the years.<\/p>\n

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The Pioneer 10 images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in 1973 were dramatic, since the storm was LARGE, and RED, surrounded by whitish clouds. The GRS today is still the largest storm in the Solar system, but it is now a shadow of its former glory. pic.twitter.com\/F0gYlZVWLv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr Heidi B. Hammel (@hbhammel) November 24, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Voyager 1 obtained this dramatic view of Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot and its surroundings on February 25, 1979. At the time, the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles (9.2 million km) from Jupiter. You can see cloud details as small as 100 miles (160 km) across. The colorful, wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex end variable wave motion. Image via NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do you have a photo of Jupiter to share? Send it to us!<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot is shrinking! Look at images from the 1800s to now and see how it\u2019s gotten smaller and rounder.<\/p>\n

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Kelly Kizer Whitt<\/h4>\n

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About the Author:<\/h6>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science writer specializing in astronomy for more than two decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine, and she has made regular contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among other outlets. Her children\u2019s picture book, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. She has also written a young adult dystopian novel titled A Different Sky. When she is not reading or writing about astronomy and staring up at the stars, she enjoys traveling to the national parks, creating crossword puzzles, running, tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n