On 25 August, the Hubble Space Telescope checked in on Jupiter, capturing another stunning view of the giant planet, the Great Red Spot and a new storm boiling up in the mid-northern latitudes. The frozen moon Europa is visible at left. The GRS, measuring about 15,700 kilometres (9,800 miles) across and rotating counterclockwise, displays an especially red colour as it plows into the clouds ahead. Another storm, dubbed Oval BA and nicknamed Red Spot Jr., is visible just below its famous counterpart, appearing to darken slightly and suggesting a possible return to a more reddish hue. Hubble captured the new image as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy program – OPAL – which keeps tabs on changes in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
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Hubble portrait captures changes in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter that show the continuing changes in its famous Great Red Spot. The images also reveal a rare wave structure in the planet’s atmosphere that has not been seen for decades. This is the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system’s outer planets which will help researchers study how they change over time.
See the Moon and Jupiter get close on 17 April
As dusk fades to dark on Sunday, 17 April, observers in the British Isles should look up to the southern sky to see the 10-day-old waxing gibbous Moon and Jupiter just four degrees apart, within the same binocular field of view. Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, and second Galilean moon, Europa, provide some events for telescope owners to view at higher magnifications.