| NASA Center: |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|---|
| Image # : |
PR99-29A1 |
|---|
| Date : |
08/05/1999
|
|---|
|
Title
An Ancient Storm in the Jovian Atmosphere
Full Description
When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter,
they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great
Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years
later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a
cyclone.
Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red
Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern
hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside
this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the
largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400
miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth
the diameter of Jupiter itself.
The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter
is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers, but lacks a
solid surface, which would dissipate the storm's energy, much as
happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red
Spot does change its shape, size, and color. Such changes are demonstrated in
high-resolution Wide Field and Planetary Cameras 1 & 2 images of Jupiter
obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and presented here by the Hubble
Heritage Project team.
The Hubble images were originally collected by Amy Simon (Cornell U.),
Reta Beebe (NMSU), Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute, MIT), and
their collaborators, and have been prepared for presentation by the
Hubble Heritage Team.
Keywords
Hubble Space Telescope HST Jupiter Great Red Spot Wide Field Planetary Camera WFPC
Subject Category
Planet-Jupiter, Hubble, Planetary Astronomy,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HSTI
- Center Number:
PR99-29A1
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-000910
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURA, Amy Simon Cornell
- Original Source: DIGITAL
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
Thumbnail |
.jpg |
90 |
90 |
12 |
Small |
.jpg |
638 |
637 |
193 |
Medium |
.jpg |
1496 |
1492 |
671 |
Large |
.jpg |
718 |
716 |
260 |
Other relevant NASA Web sites:
• NASA Headquarters
• NASA History Office
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• NASA Multimedia Gallery
• NASA Human Spaceflight
Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
• Curator & Technical Questions: Erin Needham
• NASA's Privacy Statement
|
