I love when students ask a question about what they read and yesterday the question was asked: Where did Jupiter's storm come from? Here's what I know: The largest and most powerful hurricanes ever recorded on Earth spanned over 1,000 miles across with winds gusting up to around 200 mph. That’s wide enough to stretch across nearly all U.S. states east of Texas. But even that kind of storm is dwarfed by the Great Red Spot, a gigantic storm in Jupiter. There, gigantic means twice as wide as Earth. With tremendous winds peaking at about 400 mph, the Great Red Spot has been swirling wildly over Jupiter’s skies for the past 150 years—maybe even much longer than that. While people saw a big spot in Jupiter as early as they started stargazing through telescopes in the 1600s, it is still unclear whether they were looking at a different storm. Today, scientists know the Great Red Spot is there and it’s been there for a while, but they still struggle to learn what causes its swirl of reddish hues. Understanding the Great Red Spot is not easy, and it’s mostly Jupiter’s fault. A planet a thousand times as big as Earth, Jupiter consists mostly of gas. A liquid ocean of hydrogen surrounds its core, and the atmosphere consists mostly of hydrogen and helium. That translates into no solid ground like we have on Earth to weaken storms. Studies show that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere has clouds consisting of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, and water. Still, scientists don’t know exactly how or even whether these chemicals react to give colors like those in the Great Red Spot. Alright, so why is the storm red? The exact cause of the coloring has not been proven, but…lab experiments support the theory that the color is caused by complex organic molecules, red phosphorus, or another sulfur compound that are pulled from deeper within Jupiter. The color of the Great Red Spot varies. At times it is brick-red, fading to a pale salmon, and even white. The spot occasionally disappears from the visible spectrum and can only be seen as the Red Spot Hollow. The periods that the color changes last and occur on an unpredictable schedule. As you can see, the answer to ”why does Jupiter have the Great Red Spot?” has been well researched by NASA and other space agencies. While the answer is not crystal clear at this time, future missions to the planet are designed to better study the atmosphere and somehow help us to understand our own weather patterns. Until we know the answer we can just go ahead and gaze at the storm and think about how amazing it is!
20 Comments
Tabitha
11/29/2016 04:28:14 pm
That is very interesting.
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parker
11/29/2016 05:46:02 pm
fre sha voc a do
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Katelyn ashton
11/29/2016 05:54:25 pm
Meet red spot and red Jr.
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Haley
11/29/2016 05:55:18 pm
I never knew that the red spot was a storm. I also think the pictures are awesome.
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jenna
11/29/2016 06:29:57 pm
i never there was a red dot and a red Jr ... well i knew about the big red dot but not Mr. Jr
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Caden
11/29/2016 07:04:06 pm
Jupiter is a cool planet.
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Emmalee
11/29/2016 07:16:05 pm
I just knew about the Giant Red Spot not jr red spot
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sydney
11/29/2016 08:53:10 pm
what is red spot Jr. about
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sydney
11/29/2016 08:38:35 pm
i didn't know about red jr.
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liliana
11/29/2016 09:17:04 pm
Jupiter is an interesting planet. I had no idea that there was a storm going on in that red spot. I also didn't know he (the spot) had a son named after him. Just kidding. See you tomorrow .
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jaxon bunker
11/29/2016 09:51:11 pm
its cool that there is red spot Jr. i never knew that there was a smaller red storm than the bigger one.
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Addi
11/29/2016 11:00:21 pm
Jupiter's storm actually looks pretty😊 but it's not so pretty when you're in it😉
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Ema Martinez
11/30/2016 07:03:13 am
I never knew that Jupiter had 2 red spots/storms! The pictures really helped me imagine all of it. Red spot jr, you really surprised me! :0 :)
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Tabitha
11/30/2016 07:10:48 am
Is red spot jr. Similar to the giant red spot?storm wise.
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Sebastian
11/30/2016 07:13:57 am
The storm is gigantic.
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Ty
11/30/2016 07:33:41 am
Looks like my Jupiter picture was not detailed enough😁
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Kailee
11/30/2016 07:37:43 am
Wow go red spot jr.
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |