The biggest and strongest storms to hit Earth are around 1,000 miles across, with winds upwards of 200 mph. Hurricane Patricia, for example, is among the strongest ever recorded on Earth with sustained winds upwards of 215 mph, although it was reduced to a Category 4 before smashing into the coast of Mexico. But even these mega-storms are nothing compared to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS).
Around the width of Earth, with winds of 400 mph, this giant system has been churning over Jupiter for hundreds of years. And even more fascinating, researchers have shown using images of GRS that it’s changing all the time and that it oscillates like a stress ball. In a study published last month in the Planetary Science Journal, a time-lapsed video showed how the storm shifts over a 90-day period.
The Great Red Spot
GRS is a high-pressure system located on Jupiter that produces an anticyclonic storm, meaning that the high pressure is in the middle, with winds circulating around its center. While it resembles a hurricane, it operates in the opposite manner, says Michael H. Wong, study author and a planetary scientist at the University of California Berkeley.
