Hubble: Jupiter's Red Spot Is Shrinking

[orin stepanek]

Jupiter's red spot seems to be smaller; Hubble!


http://hubblesite.org/news/2014/24

[geckzilla]

The Great Red Spot once seemed immutable, like lots of things in the cosmos. We poof in and out of existence so quickly in contrast.

[bystander]

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (GSFC) Science Credit: A. Simon (GSFC), G. Orton (JPL), J. Rogers (Cambridge), and M. Wong and I. de Pater (UC Berkeley) Acknowledgment: C. Go, H. Hammel (SSI and AURA) and R. Beebe (NMSU)

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ESA/HEIC: The shrinking of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
ESA Hubble Photo Release | 2014 May 15

Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot — a swirling storm feature larger than Earth — is shrinking. This downsizing, which is changing the shape of the spot from an oval into a circle, has been known about since the 1930s, but now these striking new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images capture the spot at a smaller size than ever before.

NASA/STScI: Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Smaller than Ever
NASA | JPL-Caltech | STScI | HubbleSite | 2014 May 15

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 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.

Science@NASA: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is Shrinking

[Nitpicker]

It's not out for the count just yet, but it will be very interesting to watch. I'm still getting over the fact that the Southern Equatorial Belt faded to virtual non-existence in 2010, before coming back a year later.

Edit: seems like the SEB has a longish history of fading out for a few months at a time, then returning in a swirl of violent storms. It has been happening irregularly every five or ten years since before my time. I can't believe I never knew that before today! Since it only happens to the SEB and not the NEB, it is so tempting to think its behaviour is related to the existence of the GRS.

[neufer]

It's not out for the count just yet, but it will be very interesting to watch. I'm still getting over the fact that the Southern Equatorial Belt faded to virtual non-existence in 2010, before coming back a year later.

Edit: seems like the SEB has a longish history of fading out for a few months at a time, then returning in a swirl of violent storms. It has been happening irregularly every five or ten years since before my time. I can't believe I never knew that before today! Since it only happens to the SEB and not the NEB, it is so tempting to think its behaviour is related to the existence of the GRS.

I wonder if the size/color of the GRS is correlated with the color/speed of the Equatorial Region/Zone:

[url=http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2014/05/15/jupiters-red-spot-shrinks-to-smallest-size-ever-how-long-will-it-last/]Astrobob[/url]: [b][color=#0000FF]At left, photo of Jupiter’s enormous Great Red Spot in 1879 from Agnes Clerk’s Book ” A History of Astronomy in the 19th Century”. At right, Jupiter on Jan. 10, 2014. Credit: Damian Peach[/color][/b]

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<<The Equatorial Region (EZ) is one of the more stable regions of the planet, in latitude and in activity. The northern edge of the EZ hosts spectacular plumes that trail southwest from the NEB, which are bounded by dark, warm (in infrared) features known as festoons (hot spots). Though the southern boundary of the EZ is usually quiescent, observations from the late 19th into the early 20th century show that this pattern was then reversed relative to today. The EZ varies considerably in coloration, from pale to an ochre, or even coppery hue; it is occasionally divided by an Equatorial Band (EB). Features in the EZ move roughly 390 km/h relative to the other latitudes.>>

[Nitpicker]

I see. I should resist the temptation to anticipate anything about Jovian weather.

[Beyond]

Yes, but you should still be Jovial.

[Nitpicker]

Yes, but you should still be Jovial.

Have you ever met Capital Letter Man (a close relation to Apostrophe Man)?

The adjective Jovial is the archaic form of Jovian, descriptive of the god or planet Jupiter. I think you mean jovial -- to be cheerful and friendly.

[Beyond]

That's why I like spoken English. Written English is tooo hard. (Except for a nitpicker)( )

[Ann]

Jovian or jovial: Jupiter, you look great anyhow. In spite of your amazing shrinking increasingly less great red spot. (Great Red Spot?)

Ann

[bystander]

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Shrinking in Size, but Not in Thickness
French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) | 2020 Mar 16

Jupiter (2019) ~ Credit: NASA, ESA, A Simon (GSFC), MH Wong (UC Berkeley)

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Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is mainly made up of liquids and gases. Its clouds are shaped by jet streams, winds and vortices into numerous parallel bands, as well as coloured patches, one of which clearly stands out: the Great Red Spot. This is an Earth-sized anticyclone that has been observed for over 350 years, but has suddenly decreased in size in recent years.

The cloud layer is extremely opaque, making it hard to observe at deeper levels. However, using laboratory experiments, analyses and numerical simulations, scientists at the Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre (Institute for Research on Non-Equilibrium Processes) (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université/Ecole Centrale de Marseille) studied the dynamics of large vortices and determined the universal balance of forces that creates them. Their model is thus able to predict the thickness of the Great Red Spot, which has remained remarkably constant over time despite the reduction in its surface area. The results are published in Nature Physics on 16 March 2020, and will shortly be compared with upcoming observations by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011.

Remote Determination of the Shape of Jupiter’s Vortices
from Laboratory Experiments ~ Daphné Lemasquerier et al

• Nature Physics (online 16 Mar 2020) DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0833-9