NASA’s Hubble telescope captures Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, reveals shocking details

American space agency, NASA Hubble Telescope captured the Great Red Spot on the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. Interestingly, the spot is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is the largest known storm in the solar system. 

Informing about the same, Hubble Telescope tweeted, “Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, seen in this #Hubble Classic image from 1999, has captivated astronomers for centuries. The spot is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. It’s the largest known storm in our solar system and almost twice the size of Earth.”

Reportedly, the Red Spot is present in Jupiter’s atmosphere for over 300 years. “When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter’s atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph,” Hubble site informed. 

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Explaining the reason behind the long lifetime of the Red Spot, the Hubble site said, “The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers, but lacks a solid surface, which would dissipate the storm’s energy, much as happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and colour, sometimes dramatically.”