NASA says Great Red Spot is complicated

William Atkins
Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:37

Science - Space

According to recent high-detailed infrared images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, the gigantic feature on the planet is much more complicated that astronomers once thought. They thought it was just “a plain old oval without much structure.” Wrong-O!

 

 

The NASA research that produced this exciting discovery is highlighted in Cornell University’s journal Icarus.

The thermal (infrared) images analyzed by the NASA team reveal that warmer temperatures in the interior of the Great Red Spot are countered by much colder temperatures on its edges. These patterns of warmer and cooler regions have never before been seen by instruments studying the planet Jupiter.

Check out some of the images available that highlight this discovery on Jupiter's GRS. Please go to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab article “See Spot on Jupiter. See Spot Glow.”

Consequently, this new discovery provides astronomers and other scientists studying Jupiter with a much better idea as to how storms circulate on Jupiter.

They don't know all there is to know about Jupiter's GRS, but future studies here on Earth and in orbit about Jupiter will provide scientists with a much better idea as to how our solar system's largest storm system works.

The authors of this NASA study are Leigh Fletcher and P. G. J. Irwin (University of Oxford, U.K.), G. S. Orton, P. Yanamandra-Fisher and B. M. Fisher (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, U.S.A.), O. Mousis (Observatoire de Besançon [Besançon Observatory, France] and University of Arizona, U.S.A.), P. D. Parrish (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), L. Vanzi (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile), T. Fujiyoshi and T. Fuse (Subaru Telescope, Hawaii, U.S.A.), A.A. Simon-Miller (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S.A.), E. Edkins (University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.), T.L. Hayward (Gemini Observatory, Chile) and J. De Buizer (SOFIA - USRA, NASA Ames Research Center, U.S.A.).

Page two continues with additional information on the discovery, along with comments from its authors.