Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It also happens to have one of the longest running storms on any planet thus far seen. The Great Spot has been prominent on Jupiter and has made the planet even more remarkable.
What is known so far about the Great Red Spot is that it is a large storm that has been going on for a long time. Some speculate that the storm has been raging on for at least 150 years, and possibly even longer than that. The Great Red Spot is also three times larger than the Earth.
Astronomers have known for around 40 years that the Great Red Spot is hot. Temperatures can reach to around 530 degrees Celsius, or about 990 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Science News for Students. Scientists are still wondering how this heat is generated, though some of it is speculated to be coming from Jupiter itself.
Just above the Great Red Spot, the area there is even hotter. Temperatures above it reach to around 1300 degrees Celsius, or 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. Such heat is said to be hotter than lava from Earth's volcanoes.
This has been observed by NASA's InfraRed Telescope Facility in Hawaii, as National Geographic reports. James O'Donoghue of Boston University is leading the study about Jupiter and its Great Red Spot. It's been known that the sun's warmth reaches to only 26 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to heat Jupiter's outer atmosphere. It however does not account for all the heat that Jupiter has.
"We call this the energy crisis nowadays," O'Donoghue says. He further points out that this has baffled scientists since the 1970s and can't account for the heat that is coming from Jupiter or the other outer planets such as Saturn or Neptune.
What O'Donoghue and his colleagues are looking on is a form of hydrogen known as the H3+ and can be found on Jupiter's atmosphere. Another possibility that they are looking at is that sound waves being emitted by thunderstorms could be heating up the upper atmosphere.
Even though the Great Red Spot is very hot, it still does not account for Jupiter's heat. For now O'Donoghue and his colleagues are still gathering data about Jupiter. The mystery of the Great Red Spot will likely remain for some time until astronomers can exactly determine what is causing its heat and how the storm can persist for a long time.
For more about space, check out iTechPost and Voyager 2's anniversary on its flyby to Saturn.
