Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar neighborhood, and its weather is very wild. We have beautiful images of Jupiter which show striped, stormy clouds covering the whole planet.
Jupiter is covered with storms. Some are only small, but some are so big they could cover all of Earth.
The largest of these storms is the famous Great Red Spot — which I see you already know about. This spot is a cyclone, similar to hurricanes and cyclones here on Earth.
It is made of powerful winds blowing in circles, a bit like tea swirling in a cup when you stir it. These winds are more than five times faster than any hurricane winds on Earth.
The Great Red Spot is like the grandfather of Jupiter’s storms. It has been roaming for many, many years – but recently we’ve seen it get smaller.
Does that mean it will one day go away? Well, not necessarily.
Stormy stripes Jupiter looks like a giant, stripy ball that spins very fast. The light-colored stripes are clouds with rising air, while the dark-colored stripes are clouds that are sinking.
When you see dark and light stripes next to each other on Jupiter, you’re seeing winds blowing in opposite directions.
When this happens, they can spin up big cyclones, kind of like how pushing a beach ball with one hand and pulling it with another will make it a spin.
Humans have been watching the Great Red Spot for at least 200 years and it has been blowing strong winds almost this whole time.
Like all storms, it can change from day today. Sometimes it looks round, sometimes like an egg. Its color can also change from brownish-red to pale red. Sometimes it looks almost white.
But recently, scientists have noticed the enormous cyclone shrinking. About 100 years ago, the Great Red Spot was almost three times larger than it is today.
Why is it shrinking? To understand why it’s shrinking, it helps to first understand why cyclones shrink (and eventually stop) on Earth.
On Earth, cyclones often form above deep, warm oceans before…