Video of Jupiter and her Great Red Spot in 4k

The video is compiled from new images captured by Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center , it was rendered in 4k to give us this stunning view of Jupiter and her shrinking red spot.

New imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is revealing details never before seen on Jupiter. High-resolution maps and spinning globes (rendered in the 4k Ultra HD format) are the first products to come from a program to study the solar system’s outer planets each year using Hubble. The observations are designed to capture a broad range of features, including winds, clouds, storms and atmospheric chemistry. These annual studies will help current and future scientists see how such giant worlds change over time.

NASA have said they've already taken pictures Neptune and Uranus for release sometime this year , can't wait.

a reply to: gortex
Cool.

I thought Jupiter was a masculine deity, and therefore, planet. Venus on the other hand...

Have they found a Moonetessimal in the spot yet?

Spectacular.

So will the great red spot disappear altogether at some point in the future?

a reply to: mithrawept

Yes it's slowly shrinking so at some point I guess it will disappear altogether , or it may be replaced by another.

Nearly one hundred years later in 1979, the Spot’s north-south extent has remained virtually unchanged, but it’s girth had shrunk to 25,000 km (15,535 miles) or just shy of two Earth diameters. Recent work done by expert astrophotographer Damian Peach using the WINJUPOS program to precisely measure the GRS in high resolution photos over the past 10 years indicates a continued steady shrinkage:

If the shrinkage continues, “Great” may soon have to be dropped from the Red Spot’s title. In the meantime, Oval BA (nicknamed Red Spot Jr.) and about half the size of the GRS, waits in the wings. Located along the edge of the South Temperate Belt on the opposite side of the planet from the GRS, Oval BA formed from the merger of three smaller white ovals between 1998 and 2ooo. Will it give the hallowed storm a run for its money? We’ll be watching.
www.universetoday.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">www.universetoday.com...

I am wondering if this is real photos or cgi?

When I look at the red spot on Jupiter I always think dust, however the 400 years or so of observance means the hurricane type affair is not likely to be over any land form where hurricanes die out or reduce. Then again, nobody is sure why the spot is that colour..so I'll just call it dust!

I wonder are there any tiny 'planets' ...sorry minor planets, trapped in the outer regions of Jupiter?

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

The video is of real Hubble pictures mapped onto a sphere , NASA takes a family portrait of the solar system planets every year to map any changes that may have occurred , the tech that exists today allows them to be a little more creative with how they show the pictures.

originally posted by: mithrawept
Spectacular.

So will the great red spot disappear altogether at some point in the future?

There's a general theory that these sort of turbulent events are caused by the interaction between the rotation of the small surface core and the underlying gas layers - like the flow of a river over rocks in the riverbed creating eddies and whirlpools. The varying colors are caused by different gas layers becoming visible, since each type of gas molecule has different color.
Normally there is such a difference in density that these would separate out and we only see the top layer, but the turbulence caused by an obstacle like a ridge or the different speeds at different latitudes causes mixing.

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: gortex
Cool.

I thought Jupiter was a masculine deity, and therefore, planet. Venus on the other hand...

Jupiter is most definitely a "he", being the Roman equivalent of Zeus.

However, the term "planet" may have the feminine gender, being short for the Greek term for a "wandering star". In Russian (which is my first language), a planet is a "she", aka planeta, and same goes for the Russian for for a star - zvezda.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: gortex
Cool.

I thought Jupiter was a masculine deity, and therefore, planet. Venus on the other hand...

Jupiter is most definitely a "he", being the Roman equivalent of Zeus.

However, the term "planet" may have the feminine gender, being short for the Greek term for a "wandering star". In Russian (which is my first language), a planet is a "she", aka planeta, and same goes for the Russian for for a star - zvezda.

Androgynous, eh?

The all seeing eye of Jupiter.
The wind speed would be so high, it would blow the flesh from your bones.

Is it just me or did the spot changed colour?

And then to think of how many times the earth fits into Jupiter ..

originally posted by: 0bserver1
The all seeing eye of Jupiter.
The wind speed would be so high, it would blow the flesh from your bones.

Is it just me or did the spot changed colour?

And then to think of how many times the earth fits into Jupiter ..

From some first observations of Jupiter, spot was there, some 400 years ago.

And yes, you see it right - it appears the storm is passing and big red eye is getting smaller.


It is incredible that size is 3-4 earth and as you said, wind speed is something that would kill you instantly... actually it would destroy all life on earth size planet with ease.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: mithrawept
Spectacular.

So will the great red spot disappear altogether at some point in the future?

There's a general theory that these sort of turbulent events are caused by the interaction between the rotation of the small surface core and the underlying gas layers - like the flow of a river over rocks in the riverbed creating eddies and whirlpools. The varying colors are caused by different gas layers becoming visible, since each type of gas molecule has different color.
Normally there is such a difference in density that these would separate out and we only see the top layer, but the turbulence caused by an obstacle like a ridge or the different speeds at different latitudes causes mixing.

That's what I thought about the turbulence too, except I thought something like a spire or sub's periscope much closer to the tops of the cloud, the catch there is the rocky core. It is now thought that Jupiter has a rocky core similar to Earth rock, representing 'only' * about 5% of Jupiters mass, while that means the rocky core is actually not so small...about 14 to 18* times Earth's mass...that's one heck of a ball of rock, and you might think that something that size would itself be subject to tidal forces of pushing and squeezing, the rest of Jupiter's mass in gases you might think included in the pushing and squeezing and generating friction and heat in the rocky core...which might mean that the rocky core itself, has a molten core. They still don't know what the colour of the GRS represents though, one suggestion is compounds of phosphorous. Jupiter is one weird place.

a reply to: SuperFrog
I wonder why that spot stays there all the time . I mean what keeps it the way it is , Gravity?

a reply to: 0bserver1

I believe it has to do with atmosphere conditions.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a persistent anticyclonic storm, 22° south of Jupiter's equator; observations from Earth establish a minimum storm lifetime of 350 years.[69][70] A storm was described as a "permanent spot" by Gian Domenico Cassini after observing the feature in July 1665 with his instrument-maker Eustachio Divini.[71] According to a report by Giovanni Battista Riccioli in 1635, Leander Bandtius, who Riccioli identified as the Abbot of Dunisburgh who possessed an "extraordinary telescope", observed a large spot that he described as "oval, equaling one seventh of Jupiter's diameter at its longest." According to Riccioli, "these features are seldom able to be seen, and then only by a telescope of exceptional quality and magnification."[72] The Great Spot has been nearly continually observed since the 1870s, however.

The GRS rotates counter-clockwise, with a period of about six Earth days[73] or 14 Jovian days. Its dimensions are 24,000–40,000 km east-to-west and 12,000–14,000 km north-to-south. The spot is large enough to contain two or three planets the size of Earth. At the start of 2004, the Great Red Spot had approximately half the longitudinal extent it had a century ago, when it was 40,000 km in diameter. At the present rate of reduction, it could potentially become circular by 2040, although this is unlikely because of the distortion effect of the neighboring jet streams.[74] It is not known how long the spot will last, or whether the change is a result of normal fluctuations.[75]
An infrared image of GRS (top) and Oval BA (lower left) showing its cool center, taken by the ground based Very Large Telescope. An image made by the Hubble Space Telescope (bottom) is shown for comparison.

According to a study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1996 and 2006 the spot lost 15 percent of its diameter along its major axis. Xylar Asay-Davis, who was on the team that conducted the study, noted that the spot is not disappearing because "velocity is a more robust measurement because the clouds associated with the Red Spot are also strongly influenced by numerous other phenomena in the surrounding atmosphere."[76]

From wiki: en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: 0bserver1
a reply to: SuperFrog
I wonder why that spot stays there all the time . I mean what keeps it the way it is , Gravity?

Jupiter has a rocky core, but the atmosphere doesn't have a sharp gas/rock boundary at the bottom. The atmosphere blends smoothly from dense gas into a liquid state. So the spot is basically a hurricane that never reaches land. The two bands above and below help provide rotational energy. Though it is gradually decreasing in size.

a reply to: gortex

The reason I asked as I didn't know if it was done in real time or time lapsed, with all the bands going in the same direction made it more CGI. Still cool none the less.