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Jupiter's Red Spot: Images of the Storm
By Kenneth Silber
Staff Writer
posted: 04:11 pm ET
05 August 1999
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jupiter_spotJupiter's Great Red Spot -- the largest storm in the solar system -- is dramatically revealed in new images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Spot, a high-pressure system in Jupiter's atmosphere, contains winds reaching speeds as high as 270 mph. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, the Spot is almost twice the size of the Earth, and is one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. The Spot is notable for its longevity; it was first discovered in the 17th century. However, the Spot also changes shape, size and color -- quite dramatically so, as the new pictures demonstrate. Hubble captured the images between 1992 and 1999. The images were originally collected by Amy Simon (Cornell U.), Reta Beebe (NMSU), Heidi Hammel (MIT) and their collaborators, and were prepared for presentation by the Hubble Heritage Team, a grouping of several institutions.
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