Surprise! Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too
Surprise! Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too
By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer | April 11, 2017 03:19pm ET
Jupiter is famous for its Great Red Spot, a storm twice the diameter of Earth that rages on the gas giant's surface. Now, researchers have found that it has a second great spot, almost as large — this one, a Great Cold Spot caused by the planet's vibrant auroras.
Researchers first detected the ever-changing Great Cold Spot in data from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and went back to track its existence over a 15-year period in observations from another telescope. The cool patch stretches up to 15,000 by 7,500 miles (24,000 by 12,000 km) across at its largest, and it's about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) cooler than the surrounding area in the planet's upper atmosphere. Although it disappears from time to time it seems to always re-form, just offset from the planet's bright aurora.
"The Great Cold Spot is much more volatile than the slowly changing Great Red Spot, changing dramatically in shape and size over only a few days and weeks, but it has reappeared for as long as we have data to search for it, for over 15 years," Tom Stallard, a planetary astronomer at the University of Leicester in the U.K. and lead author on the new work, said in a statement. (2nd 'Great Spot' on Jupiter Discovered by Astronomers (Video))
The spot is likely formed as a byproduct of the planet's spectacular auroras, researchers said in the statement, and that because of the way the spot always re-forms it might be as old as the auroras themselves — up to many thousands of years in age.
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