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The giant red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years. But which other planets in our solar system have their own red spots?
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Jupiter
Jupiter is a gas giant, the largest in the Solar System. It has a mass two and a half times that of all the other planets combined. And it’s famous for its Great Red Spot, a giant swirling storm that has been raging for hundreds of years.
The Great Red Spot
Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been raging on the planet for over 400 years. The spot is actually an anticyclone, a type of large-scale atmospheric circulation that rotates in the opposite direction of the planet’s rotation. It is believed to be caused by a combination of Jupiter’s fast rotation (the planet completes one day every 10 hours) and its deep atmosphere.
The Great Red Spot is not the only feature on Jupiter that is red. The planet also has red auroras, which are produced when particles from the sun interact with Jupiter’s atmosphere. These auroras are usually found near the poles, but they can also be seen near the equator when they are particularly active.
Jupiter’s red color is thought to be caused by two main ingredients: iron oxide and sulfur. These elements are common in the universe, but they are usually found in much smaller quantities than on Jupiter. The high concentration of these elements on Jupiter is thought to be the result of the planet’s formation, when it was bombarded by comets and asteroids rich in these materials.
Other red spots on Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity. The Romans named it after their god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can be bright enough for its disk to be visible to the naked eye, and it is often used in binoculars and small telescopes.
In July 2009, NASA’s Juno spacecraft became the first to orbit Jupiter,[12] allowing direct observation of Jupiter’s atmosphere for the first time since Galileo’s flybys in 1610–1613[13]—which discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.[14] Results from Juno show that at deep levels Jupiter’s hydrogen atmosphere is electrically conducting.[15] In May 2016, amateur astronomer Dan Peterson discovered a fifth satellite of Ganymede using ground-based equipment.[16][17]
The Red Spot is one of several persistent areas of enhanced weather activity on Jupiter. It is located 22° south of Jupiter’s equator in a region known as jet stream J3.[1][2][3] The Red Spot is large enough to contain two or three Earths[4][5] and has been observed for more than 300 years (making it possibly the longest lived storm ever seen).[2][6][7][8] The speed at its outer edge is faster than any rotational speed measurable at Earth’s surface; if it were stationary over Earth it would appear to rotate at about 42 km/h (26 mph) counterclockwise as seen from above Earth’s north pole (when looking down towards Earth).[9][10] Infrared images have revealed that there are several hot spots associated with this region where material exists which may be as hot as 1,800 K (−1,530 °C; −2,770 °F) suggesting an internal heat source for this relatively cool feature that may be related to tidal heating from Io or another body orbiting farther out within Io’s orbital family such as Adrastea or Ananke.[11]
Saturn
Of all the planets in our solar system, Saturn is the one with the most distinctive feature: a large, red spot on its surface. This spot is actually a giant storm, and it has been raging for centuries. It’s so big that it could comfortably swallow Earth whole.
The Great Red Spot
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been observed on the surface of Saturn for over 200 years. It is large enough to fit two Earths inside of it, and it is believed to be at least 350 years old. The storm appears to be slowly shrinking, and it is not currently known why this is happening.
Other red spots on Saturn
While the best-known red spot on Saturn is the Great Red Spot, there are actually several other red spots on the planet. These include:
-The Little Red Spot: This spot is about one-third the size of the Great Red Spot and was discovered in 2005 by the Cassini spacecraft.
-The North Polar Region: This region is a large, reddish area at Saturn’s north pole that was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.
-The South Polar Region: This region is a large, reddish area at Saturn’s south pole that was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.
Neptune
Neptune, the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System, has several unique features. One of the most notable is the Great Dark Spot, a giant storm that is visible through Neptune’s atmosphere. This spot is actually large enough to fit the entire Earth inside of it!
The Great Red Spot
Neptune, the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System, has the most extreme environment of any planet in the Solar System. It has strong winds, large storms, and very low temperatures. One of the most famous features on Neptune is the Great Red Spot.
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been on Neptune for centuries. It is so large that it could fit two Earths inside of it! The storm gets its red color from tiny pieces of nitrogen and methane that are in Neptune’s atmosphere. These pieces are blown around by the high winds in the storm.
Other red spots on Neptune
Neptune also has two other red spots. One, called the “Dark Spot Jr.”, is less than half the size of the Great Dark Spot and is located south of it. The other, the “Small Dark Spot”, is about one-third the size of the Great Dark Spot and is located northeast of it.
Uranus
Uranus is the only planet in our solar system that has a red spot. The red spot is a giant storm that is about the size of Earth. The storm is so big that it can be seen from space. The red spot is also very cold, which is why it is red.
The Great Red Spot
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been raging on the planet Jupiter for centuries. It is large enough to fit three Earths inside it, and it is still getting bigger. Jupiter’s red spot is actually an anti-cyclonic storm, meaning that it rotates in the opposite direction of the rest of the planet. The winds inside the storm can reach up to 350 kilometers per hour.
Other red spots on Uranus
Besides the best-known red spot, there are several other dark spots on Uranus. These spots tend to be clumped near the poles and appear to be related to the storm clouds that encircle them. The northern pole has two dark regions, called “Sleytan” and “Grammundr”. The southern pole has a single large spot called “The Great Dark Spot”.
