Jupiter's Little Red Spot

Reported November 2008

LAUREL, Md. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Jupiter's Great Spot isn't as great as it used to be. It's actually been steadily shrinking for decades. Now, its younger, smaller sibling, the Little Red Spot, may be taking over the spotlight.

The planet Jupiter looms out in space. Its famous feature, the Great Red Spot -- a massive, swirling storm -- can be seen from your backyard.

"If [you look] at Jupiter through a telescope, it is the red spot you can see," Andrew Cheng, Ph.D., a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., told Ivanhoe.

Now, a newer, younger storm called the Little Red Spot is growing despite its name and proving to be fierce competition for the top spot on Jupiter.

"Jupiter's red spot is a not-so-little, giant storm," Dr. Cheng said. "It's like a hurricane except that its winds blow in the opposite direction."

The counter-clockwise winds make the storm an anticyclone, and for the first time, planetary scientists have recorded wind speeds of up to 385 mph -- the highest ever detected on a planet. That's 185 mph faster than any category 5 hurricane on earth.

"It's much bigger than any hurricanes that are found on earth," Dr. Cheng said. "It's bigger than earth itself."

The Little Red Spot started out white and recently turned red. Researchers believe increased wind speeds stirred up material that was exposed to ultraviolet radiation, causing a chemical change to make it look red.

"Many features in Jupiter's atmosphere change color from time to time," Dr. Cheng said. "Now, it looks very much like the Great Red Spot. It's just a smaller version of it."

By keeping an eye on all of Jupiter's spots, scientists hope to get a better understanding of weather on other planet, too.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Michael Buckley
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Laurel, MD
(240) 228-7536
Michael.Buckley@jhuapl.edu

Steve Maran
American Astronomical Society
Washington, DC 20009-1231
(202) 328-2010
steve.maran@aas.org

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