Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Its mass is 317,8 times that of Earth and its surface is about 121,9 times larger than the Earth's surface.
This fifth planet from the Sun, which takes about 12 years to make a complete tour of the solar system, is visible to the naked eye and referred to in the oldest known astronomical reports. This is not surprising, as it is generally the fourth brightest object in the sky after the Sun, Moon and Venus.
In the XNUMXth century, astronomers were able for the first time to identify more clearly the existence of a large reddish spot on Jupiter's surface.
Estimates then made indicated that this spot, located close to the equator of Jupiter, would be about 40 kilometers in diameter. In other words, three Earths would fit in it!
What is this big red spot? A violent anti-cyclonic storm in the giant planet's atmosphere. The spot rotates around itself, counterclockwise, with a periodicity of about six Earth days.
To get a better idea of the violence of this phenomenon, let's say that the winds inside it have a speed of several hundred kilometers per hour. This was confirmed with unprecedented precision by the data sent by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979.
As far as is known, this storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is the largest in our solar system. The best images we have of it were also obtained by the close approach to the planet Jupiter made by the Voyager spacecraft, and they are chromatically spectacular.
But let it be said that it is possible to see this big red spot through a telescope with an aperture of at least 12 cm. In other words, the spot is within reach of any of us as an observer on Earth.
The Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope has also provided astronomers in particular, and all of us in general, with high-resolution images of Jupiter's entire disk, where the big red spot can be visualized.
And it was by analyzing the size of this giant storm through recently captured images that scientists confirmed that it is shrinking!
When the Voyager probes visited Jupiter, in 1979 and 1980, astronomers had registered a substantial decrease in the spot to about 23 thousand kilometers in diameter.
Now new images taken by the powerful Hubble Space Telescope indicate that it has shrunk to 16 kilometers!
Scientists have no explanation for this decrease in the great red spot at a rate of about a thousand kilometers per year, nor what it means for the dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Is the storm calming? What is happening mysteriously on Jupiter?!
Author Antonio Piedade
Science in the Regional Press – Ciência Viva
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