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The Great Red Spot Kirti Chhabra NATURE’S MARVELS Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA The Great Red Spot Kirti Chhabra HE Great Red Spot is one of the most recognisable the atmosphere are mostly hydrogen and helium, hence, it features on Jupiter. A gigantic storm that is big has no solid ground to weaken storms as we have on Earth. Tenough to swallow three Earths, but only looks like Scientists were able to know a little about the a spot from the Earth on Jupiter. The largest and most Great Red Spot and are still struggling to learn what powerful hurricanes ever recorded on Earth stretch over causes its swirl of reddish hues. Studies suggest that 1500 km across with winds blowing up to 200 mph. But Jupiter’s upper atmosphere clouds consist of ammonia, even that kind of storm is diminished by the Great Red ammonium hydrosulphide, and water. Are these chemicals Spot. reacting to give colour to the Great Red Spot? Although The earliest observations of the Red Spot date back as these compounds contribute to only a small part of the far as the 1600s, although the first confirmed sighting of atmosphere. the great red spot was in 1831. Understanding the Great Red Spot is not easy; the counterclockwise-moving storm, There are leading experts who agree with the theory an anticyclone, boasts violent winds of 400 mph which are that deep under Jupiter’s clouds, a colourless ammonium swirling in the Jupiter’s skies over the past 150 years or hydrosulphide layer could be reacting with cosmic rays maybe much longer. or UV radiation from the Sun. However, the position of Jupiter is a thousand times as big as the Earth, Red Spot in the latitude is consistently observed to be 22 consisting of mostly gas. The core of Jupiter is surrounded degrees south of Jupiter’s equator and is connected to the by an ocean of liquid hydrogen, and the gases present in prominent cloud bands in Jupiter’s atmosphere. 60 | Science Reporter | November 2019 Image Credit: NASA According to a report of NASA published in March 2018, the Red Spot of Jupiter is shrinking in its size. As the storm is contracting, it is also growing taller. Amy Simon, an expert in planetary atmospheres at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, mentions that the Great Red Spot is constantly changing in size and shape, and its winds shift, as well. According to the findings of the report, the Great Red Spot has started to drift westward faster than before. The storm always positions at the same latitude which is held there by jet streams to the north and south, but it circles the globe in the west direction opposite to the planet’s eastward rotation. It’s always been assumed that the spot is constant, but recently the team found that the spot is moving much faster. Since 2014, the colour of the spot has been deepening too, becoming intensely orange. The mystery of the Great Red Spot will get deeper, as the iconic storm contracts, whether it will continue to swirl and break apart completely. Approximate size comparison of the Earth and the Great Red Spot Contributed by Ms Kirti Chhabra, Former Research Intern, Image Credit: Wikipedia Science Reporter, CSIR-NISCAIR November 2019 | Science Reporter | 61.
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