esahubble_opo9929b August 5th, 1999
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA/ESA) and Amy Simon (Cornell U.)
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 now 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.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9929b/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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