Saturday, May 17, 2014

Out, Out, Damned Spot!

Today, NASA released images taken with the Hubble's Wide Field Camera showing that Jupiter's Great Red Spot has reached the smallest size yet recorded. At 16,500 km in diameter (10252.6 miles), the spot isn't likely to go away any time soon, but the shrinkage represents the continuation—and possibly acceleration—of a long-term trend.

Observations made from Earth in the 1800s suggest that the Red Spot was once over 40,000 km across. By the time the Voyagers visited and provided an accurate measure, the Spot was down to 23,000 km. Hubble has been taking images regularly, but NASA credits amateur astronomers for noticing that the rate of the storm's dissipation picked up in 2012, with the feature losing 900 km of diameter (559 miles) a year since then.

That must take a $#!*load of spot remover.

2 comments:

  1. No great surprise here. Even this storm will eventually blow out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. some one is operating a coal fired energy plant.
    Driving many types of cars and flying too many aircraft around Jupiter.
    And mowing their lawns.
    Heltau

    ReplyDelete