Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a storm wider than Earth, and people have watched it swirl for nearly 200 years.
What’s going on
Jupiter has no solid ground. Its stripes are bands of cloud, pale zones and darker belts, stretched sideways by powerful winds as the planet spins once in about ten hours. The Great Red Spot is a giant storm in the southern half, about 16,000 kilometres across, roughly 1.3 Earths. It has been watched since 1830, may be far older, and has been shrinking for decades.
Myth
The Great Red Spot is a red island or a giant volcano.
Fact
It is a storm in Jupiter’s clouds, with no ground beneath it.
Learn more
NASA, “NASA’s Juno Probes the Depths of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot” (2017); NASA Science, “A Storm of Change” (Juno).
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