Monday, April 26, 2010

The Red Spot



The Red Spot was first observed by Giovanni Cassini in the late 1600. It wasn't observed up close until NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft made its flyby in 1974.

The Red Spot on Jupitar is a high storm that has been swirling around Jupiter for hundreds of years, it also had brown and white oval storms, that are smaller and un named storms, the white ones are cooler than the otheres.

Astronomers think the spot is red because it pulls up darker compounds from deeper down in Jupiter. There is a new formed Oval BA (Red Spot Jr.) is getting larger and starting to turn red as well. The storm is large enough to be seen through earth based telescopes.

The oval object rotates counterclockwise in a period of 6 days. The storms can last for hours, days and centuries.
www-atm.physics.ox.ac.uk/.../redspot_false2.jpg

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