Why is Jupiter's Giant Red spot disappearing? - VastlyCurious

    One of the Iconic spots of our solar system lies in Jupiter and it is the greatest storm ever which is occurring for over 350 years. This massive storm was spotted in the early 17th century. The formation of this Giant cyclone is still one of the mysteries of the solar system. This Storm is observed to be 4 times the diameter of the Earth in the 1800s. But it is observed to shrinking. Is Jupiter's Giant Red Spot going to disappear soon?

Jupiter's Giant Red Spot

What is Jupiter's Giant Red Spot?

     Jupiter's Giant Red Spot is an enormous storm occurring on the equator of Jupiter's surface which is about twice the size of the Earth and the size of the storm is slowly shrinking. The storms on Earth are not even close to the size and speed of this giant storm. In fact, this storm is the largest occurring storm in our solar system. The Great storm is 16,350 kilometres (10,159 miles) wide, it is so large that the storm could swallow our entire planet. The wind speed near the edge of the cyclone could reach up to a maximum speed of 680 kph (425 mph). The Giant cyclone is similar to the storms on Earth in one way, which is that the eye of the storm or the centre of the storm is relatively calmer.

    Most of the things in space are weird and surely Jupiter's Giant Red Spot is among them. Unlike the cyclones on Earth, the cyclone on Jupiter rotates in the counterclockwise direction and hence it is called an Anti-cyclone. The Giant Red Spot appears luminous because of the presence of sulfur and phosphorous in its cloudy atmosphere. The rotation period of this anti-cyclone is about six Earth and this time period is gradually decreasing over several decades because of its reduction in size.

Jupiter's Giant spot seen from the Hubble telescope

    While the longest-lasting storm on Earth continued for only 31 days, this storm was predicted to be lasting for more than 350 years. The Scientists even predict that the storm could be much older because of the absence of a solid surface on Jupiter. Jupiter doesn't really have any solid layers, it is made up of cloud layers consisting of ammonia and water vapour. Although we haven't found the composition of Jupiter's surface, it is believed to be fully gaseous. So the Giant Red Storm could be occurring due to the absence of land surface since the cyclones on the Earth slow down when they reach the surface. This allows the storm to rage on for centuries.

    This Giant Red Spot was first observed in 1665 by the Italian Astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini and it was found to be larger than the Voyager probe's later observations. The length of the storm was measured to be 48,000 kilometres (30,000 miles) in the 1990s, but the Voyager one space probe measured the storm's length to be 23,000 kilometres (14,500 miles) and it has been shrunk to almost half its size in a few decades. The colour of the Giant storm is fading away as it appears to be getting greyer when the storm was spotted by the Hubble telescope. 

What causes the red spot on Jupiter?

    We haven't even found out the age of this storm, we have no definitive answer as to how the storm appeared on Jupiter. Saturn's Storm form and disappear regularly, but they are not lasting for several decades. Whereas this giant storm seems to be more than 350 years old. The colour of the storm might be created due to the effects of cosmic rays or the UV rays from the sun on the Ammonium Hydrosulfide on the planet's atmosphere. The Storm might be lasting longer because there is no solid surface to break the angular momentum of the cyclone. Scientists at NASA are trying to solve the mystery of the formation of the Red spot by combining chemicals under the right temperature and radiation levels to replicate Jupiter's cloudy atmosphere.

Will Jupiter's Giant red spot disappear?

    Oh yes! Jupiter's Giant red spot is shrinking just like Saturn's rings and it could disappear in the future. The Scientist has predicted that the disappearance of Jupiter's Red Spot could happen in the next 20 years. Nothing lasts forever, not even the giant storm which is the size of the Earth. When the Giant Storm was observed first it was huge as it could fit three earth's inside it, whereas now it was observed to have reduced in size.

The size of Jupiter's Storm observed to be shrinking
Image credits: SkyandTelscope.com 

     The mission Juno was launched by NASA in 2011 to observe Jupiter and it might just give us the clue about what is really happening on Giant Red Spot. The Juno space probe found out that the Great Red Spot was actually 50 to 100 deeper than the Earth's deepest oceans. So few scientists argue that even though the size of the storm is reduced, it is still stable and this might not be the end of Jupiter's Giant Red Spot.