DNew observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal that the 190-year-old storm ripples like gelatin and changes shape like a compressed stress ball, NASA reports.
These unexpected discoveries, obtained by Hubble over a period of 90 days, between December and March, show that the Great Red Spot is less stable than it appeared, according to astronomers.
The Great Red Spot (GRS) is an anticyclone, a vast circulation of winds in Jupiter’s atmosphere, that revolves around a central area of high pressure located along the planet’s southern mid-latitude cloud belt. This colossal storm, the largest in the solar system, is large enough for the entire Earth to fit inside.
Although the storms are generally considered unstable, the Great Red Spot has persisted for nearly two centuries. However, the changes observed seem linked to its movement and size.
