It is the largest storm in our solar system. The Great Red Spot. Today astronomers tell us that its winds – at least those at its limits – are accelerating.
The big red spotShe is an almost mythical figure of Jupiter. Its distinguishing mark. giant Tornado which extends inAtmosphere from giant planet It is more than 15,000 kilometers long and nearly 12,000 kilometers wide. So it is slightly larger than the size of our Earth! and the slots Famous for blowing up speeds Crazy, over 640 kilometers per hour.
Europa casts a shadow over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot – a multiplex complex made from image data acquired by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on May 22, 2000 and #OTD September 19, 1997 and Cassini on December 29, 2000. pic.twitter.com/O7Xwp8qzO1
– Jason Major (@JPMajor) September 19, 2021
but today, Astronomy scientists From the University of California at Berkeley (USA) that the average wind speed in the red dot boundary increased by 8% between 2009 and 2020. Even in the central region of high pressure, the wind blows much more quietly.
This result was obtained by the researchers thanks to the time coverage – more than 30 years now – and for Precision Space – the machine can distinguish, on Jupiter, features with a diameter of only 170 kilometers – from the Hubble Space Telescope. and to software This made it possible to track hundreds of thousands of wind vectors every time Hubble observed The largest planet in the solar system. “Only a space telescope can capture Jupiter’s winds in great detail.”, as Amy Simon says, from Goddard Space Flight Center from NASA, in a Report de Lissa. The development involved here is still already weak. Less than 2.5 kilometers per hour per Earth year.
Understanding the physics of the Great Red Spot
Astronomers must now work to understand the reason for this increase Wind speed. A more difficult task, because Hubble cannot see the underside of high pressure very well. But the researchers are excited. “It’s an interesting piece of the puzzle that can help us understand what drives big red spot How do you keep it? energy. »
Remember, this has intrigued astronomers since the 1870s, and since then, they’ve realized that it contains the structure of a wedding cake. Several floors with Clouds Tops in the middle cascade on the outside. The researchers also note that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has shrunk in size and become more circular over time.
On other planets, such as Neptune, astronomers have noticed that storms tend to disappear within just a few years. So the Great Red Spot is an exception. But this latest work should help scientists elucidate the physical mechanisms that shape and maintain these mechanisms Storms on the planets The solar system.
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