No one can understand why he keeps changing shape

the Jupiter’s Great Red Spot It continues to surprise astronomers and scientists, who do not yet understand why It keeps changing shape.

In addition to becoming smaller in recent years, new images obtained by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope between December 2023 and March 2024 reveal that its size fluctuates, much like the Great Red Spot. Was pushed or crushedLike a stress ball. Details of the new notes, published in New study We are Journal of Planetary Science, Submitted to 56th DPS Annual MeetingPlanetary Science Section of the American Astronomical Society, held in Boise, Idaho, October 6-10, 2024.

How the Great Red Spot changed in 90 days / Image source: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC) – Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

What is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot?

The great red spot is there Jupiter’s main anticyclonic stormwhat kind of Anticyclone (high pressure) vortex. Which is observed in many planetary atmospheres of our solar system.

Unlike the eddies observed on Earth, which last for a few years at most, large anticyclones on giant planets like Jupiter can last for several decades: The Great Red Spotin particular, has been observed for at least 150 years by astronomers, and perhaps even for 350 years if we consider the first observations by Giovanni Cassini.

Jupiter and the Great Red Spot, the anticyclonic storm that has oppressed the planet for centuries / Image source: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Since its discovery, the nature of this swirling storm, which rotates counterclockwise and is trapped between powerful winds exceeding 643 kilometers per hour, has been the subject of studies: its structure, as well as its evolution and even its more recognizable characteristics, namely Its color is red-orangeHowever, these are just some of the aspects over which many questions still remain.

Why does Jupiter’s Great Red Spot keep changing shape?

The truth about the Great Red Spot on Jupiter It keeps moving and changing shape It’s nothing unexpected: the size of the massive anticyclonic storm that has been raging in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere for centuries is actually known. It oscillates as it drifts westward.

Eight images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot show how an anticyclonic storm changes over a 90-day oscillation cycle / Credit: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC) – Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

“Although it is known that the movement of the Great Red Spot varies slightly in longitude, We didn’t expect to see its size fluctuate as well. As far as we know, this has not been previously determined – He said The study’s lead author, planetary scientist Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This is really the first time We had the right shooting rhythm From the Great Red Spot. Thanks to Hubble’s high resolution, we can say that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is definitely pressing in and out at the same time as it is moving faster and slower. It was very unexpected and there is no hydrodynamic explanation at the moment“.

Thanks to data from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have measured the size, shape, brightness, color and vortex of the Great Red Spot in a complete oscillation cycle: ultraviolet observations, in particular, have shown that The essence of the spot becomes brighter During times when the storm is at its strongest, indicating less fog inland.

“As it accelerates and decelerates, the Great Red Spot appears It pushes the jet streams north and south – Astronomer and co-author of the study, Mike Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, added. It is similar to a sandwich where slices of bread are forced to swell When there is too much padding in the center“.

The team has been studying changes in the Great Red Spot ever since Program Outer Planet Atmosphere Legacy (OPAL)NASA’s initiative aimed at studying the atmospheres of the giant planets in the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) was launched in 2014: The Great Red Spot, according to scientists It will continue to shrink before taking on a stable, less elongated shape.

“It now overfills its latitude range relative to the wind field – Simon Al Muqadd – . Once it narrows within this range, the wind will hold it in placeThe size of the Great Red Spot should stabilize after that, but so far the Hubble Space Telescope has only observed it for a 90-day oscillation cycle.