The great red spot on Jupiter turns out to be a lot deeper than scientists previously suspected. The US space probe Juno has found that the spot, which is a huge storm, has a depth of 350 to 500 kilometers. The width of the storm is estimated at 16,000 kilometers.
The storm may be deeper than expected, but it is relatively thinner than terrestrial hurricanes, the researchers describe in scientific journal Science.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is notorious for its extreme weather conditions. A permanent storm is raging in the great red spot. With winds of 430 kilometers per hour, it is more powerful than the most powerful hurricane on Earth. The storm has probably been active for 300 years.
Probe Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 and not only takes pictures but also collects data about the atmosphere, radiation and the core of the planet. In 2017, the Juno spacecraft sent photos of the Great Red Spot to Earth for the first time.
Those pictures looked like this:
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