WHY JUPITER'S GREAT RED SPOT IS VANISHING

Jupiter’s complex weather system is sapping its famous red spot at an alarming rate. And scientists predict the feature could vanish within our lifetimes

- COLIN STUART

One of the Solar System’s most iconic features may be on the way out. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope recently measured Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and found its diameter to be the lowest ever recorded. If it continues shrinking at its present rate, it could be gone within two decades.

The Great Red Spot is an anti-cyclonic (anti-clockwise) storm in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere and is large enough to contain three Earths. With winds raging at 270 miles per hour, it’s one of the fiercest storms in the Solar System. It’s possible that it was first observed as far back as the 1630s, not long after the invention of the telescope. However, accurate measurements of its size began in the late 1800s. At that point astronomers noted its diameter as 25,500 miles. By the time NASA’s Voyager space probes sidled up to Jupiter in 1979, the spot had shrunk by almost a half. And early Hubble images taken in 1995 revealed it had withered to just 13,020 miles.