The most famous storm in the solar system is an apex predator.
Jupiter’s Great red spot enjoyed countless smaller storms that recently roamed nearby, possibly even sustaining these meals, a new study suggests.
Astronomers have been continuously observing the Great Red Spot since the late 1800s. The storm has shrunk significantly during that stretch, going from 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) wide in the 1870s to about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) today. (For perspective: Earth is a little over 7,900 miles or 12,700 km wide.)
Related: Jupiter’s large red spot in photos
Astronomers aren’t sure why the Great Red Spot is shrinking. Some have speculated that collisions with smaller storms, which have increased in recent years, may play a role. The new study explored that hypothesis.
Researchers led by Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a professor of applied physics at Basque Country University in Spain, studied images of the Great Red Spot captured by NASA’s between 2018 and 2020 Hubble Space Telescope, the orbit of Jupiter of the space agency Juno spacecraft and amateur astronomers here on Earth.
The team identified numerous encounters between the Great Red Spot and smaller anticyclones. (Anticyclones swirl around central cores of high atmospheric pressure, while cyclones like Earth’s hurricanes revolve around areas of low pressure.) These atmospheric crashes bounced off the Great Red Spot, shielding chunks of cloud around the edges of the great storm.
The Great Red Spot’s diameter shrank as it absorbed these smaller storms, the team found. But those changes were probably only skin deep, “not affecting the full depth of the GRS.” [Great Red Spot]’Wrote Sánchez-Lavega and his colleagues the new study, which was published online Wednesday (March 17) in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
“The interactions are not necessarily destructive, but can transfer energy to the GRS, keep it in a steady state and ensure its long life,” they added.
“This group has done an extremely careful and thorough work,” said Timothy Dowling, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Louisville who was not involved in the new study. said in a statement
The flaking of Great Red Spot material is likely just a surface phenomenon, leaving the depths of the storm, extending 200 kilometers below Jupiter’s cloud tops, largely untouched, Dowling added.
Mike Wall is the author of “Outside(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the quest for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.