images

Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.

by

Nasa/Hubble heritage team/Novapix

Reference

a-jup02-00001

Date

2006-09-30

Partial view of Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot.It is  a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. Image taken by the Hubble space telescope in 1999.