Inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot, watch the amazing real video

Let's delve into Jupiter's Great Red Spot in this stunning high-resolution video captured by the Juno probe in 2017

It is the largest storm ever observed in our solar system It has raged for nearly 350 years. We're talking about Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which is an eye Gas giantone of the most terrible and mysterious places in our entire solar system.

What we know about Jupiter's Great Red Spot

spring Color image This image of the Great Red Spot was taken by the Voyager 1 probe in 1979. It was taken on February 25 at a distance of about 9 million kilometers from the planet. What we know is that the GMR rotates counterclockwise for 6 Earth days. Its length is between 24 and 40 thousand kilometers from west to east, and between 12 and 14 thousand kilometers from south to north. In practice it can fit Three times the size of EarthImagine its size!

The diameter of this massive storm has decreasedDuring the twentieth century, its shape also seems to change, as we previously expected in a previous article. However, since 2012, astronomers have observed, perhaps also thanks to the powerful telescopes available to science today, that the spot is shrinking at a faster rate, about 1,000 kilometers per year. However, in 2010, a research group from Hawaii noticed that the reddest color indoors corresponds To a “hot” heart.The dark lines on the edges of the storm represent sinking gases In the depths of the planet.

color

Although the cause of the Great Red Spot's bright color is not yet known, many scientists believe it is red phosphorus or a sulfur compound. Jupiter, on the other hand, has a very similar composition to that of the Sun: in addition to hydrogen and helium, there are a variety of other compounds such as ammonia, methane and water, from which all the diverse colors we admire about the gas giant planet.

What's under the famous storm?

One of the questions we often ask ourselves is: What is inside Jupiter? Astronomers believe that the planet has Solid coreRocky, composed of carbon silicates and iron. Around the core there will be a kind of mantle consisting of metallic hydrogenWhile everywhere there is an extensive atmosphere consisting of gases that exert very high pressures on the center of the planet.

Jupiter's outer atmosphere is characterized, as we said, by colored lines ranging from cream to brown, in which cyclonic and anticyclonic formations move, including the Great Red Spot. It generates very rapid rotation Intense magnetic field, which extends into the outer solar system several times the radius of Jupiter, disturbing the orbits of other planets but at the same time protecting them from debris that could hit them. Here it is 4K video With a beautiful explanation of how Jupiter's Great Red Spot was formed. Good vision!

Cover image courtesy of NASA