【Inexperienced Experience Of The Summer (2015)】

Centuries ago,Inexperienced Experience Of The Summer (2015) a huge red spot on Jupiter vanished. But years later, a new one was born.

Today we know this conspicuous feature as the "Great Red Spot," a swirling storm wider thanEarth. Curiously, earlier astronomers, like Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1665, also observed a colossal red storm at the same latitude on Jupiter — raising the possibility that they're actually the same storm.

In newly published research, however, astronomers sleuthed through historical drawings and early telescope observations of Jupiter to conclude that today's spot is indeed a separate storm from its predecessor, unfittingly known as the "Permanent Spot." It likely disappeared between the mid-18th and 19th centuries.

"What is certain is that no astronomer of the time reported any spot at that latitude for 118 years," Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a planetary scientist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, told Mashable.

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

Then, in 1831, astronomers started seeing a conspicuous red spot again. The new research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, concludes this latest spot is at least 190 years old.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

That's one impressive storm. Not only has it been spinning counterclockwise for nearly two centuries, it packs winds reaching some 400 mph. Planetary scientists at NASA and elsewhere are working to understand what gives the space tempest its vibrant red hue.

Centuries-old documentation of the Permanent Spot also shows that it was much smaller than the Great Red Spot in the 19th century (and later), which means this earlier storm would have had to triple in size. But that's not something astronomers have ever witnessed in a storm on Jupiter, Sánchez-Lavega explained.

The images a, b, and c show the "Permanent Spot" drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini respectively in 1677, 1690, and 1691. The image d shows a view of the Great Red Spot in 2023. Credit: G. D. Cassini / Eric Sussenbach / AGU a: A 1711 painting with Jupiter by Donato Creti showing the Permanent Spot. b: A drawing by the French artist E. L. Trouvelot in November 1880, showing the Great Red Spot. c: A drawing by T. G. Elger in November 1881 showing the Great Red Spot. Credit: Donato Creti / E. L. Trouvelot / T. G. Elger

You might wonder how the Great Red Spot, so unique in color and size, came to be. You're not alone. To find out, the research team also ran computer simulations, based on the behavior of vortices (or storms) in the Jovian atmosphere. The most compelling result — that created a larger "proto-Great Red Spot" that would have shrunk into a more compact storm — was unstable wind and atmospheric disturbance in this region of Jupiter's atmosphere. Another leading candidate was the possibility of several storms merging, but that didn't produce something resembling the Great Red Spot.

---

Related Stories

---

• NASA spacecraft snaps awesome view of volcanoes erupting on distant world
• NASA spacecraft spots dead robot on Mars surface
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• Watch SpaceX's Starship booster ace its splashdown for the first time
• If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

For over 150 years, the Great Red Spot has continued to shrink. In 1879, when it appeared more sausage-like, it was some 24,200 miles (39,000 kilometers) across. Now it's 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) wide, which is about the size of its predecessor. The spot's next stages are uncertain.

The Great Red Spot, as seen in April 2017, with Earth overlaid. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Christopher Go

"We do not know what the future of the [Great Red Spot] is," Sánchez-Lavega said. If it continues to contract, it could fragment apart. Or, he added, "It may reach a stable size and last for a long time."

One thing is certain: From our perch hundreds of millions of miles away, we'll be watching.

---

Featured Video For You

---

10 mind-blowing discoveries from the James Webb Telescope

---

• Shopping
• Games
• Digital Culture
• Science
• Tech
• Social Good
• Entertainment
• Deals

• Boys to Men
• The Saddest Children’s Book in the World by Yevgeniya Traps
• The Harvard Color Detectives
• The Philosopher of the Firework by Skye C. Cleary and John Kaag
• Is Trump the New Clinton?
• The Spectacle of Women’s Wrestling
• The Philosopher of the Firework by Skye C. Cleary and John Kaag
• Five Summer Book Reports by Chia
• The Tagorean Impulse
• The Saddest Songs Are the Ones About Flowers by Drew Bratcher

• 8 reasons we'd go on a date with Betty White
• 30 gifts for your cat, even if they're an assh*le
• 'Fantastic Beasts' shows signs of life at the box office
• How millennials give for the holidays: Donating online and buying cool shoes
• 25 gifts for people who love naps
• Nelly attempts to explain the iconic Excel spreadsheet texting in 'Dilemma'
• Reddit CEO confesses to editing comments from Trump supporters
• Paytm suspends POS app a day after release due to security concerns
• Hillary Clinton's campaign will now help Jill Stein's vote recount
• Trump isn't happy about the Green Party's 'ridiculous' vote recount

• Hyperspeed of the Immediate
• Redux: On Trial by The Paris Review
• ‘Girl, Interrupted,’ Twenty
• Marlene Dumas’s Metamorphoses
• Signs and Blunders
• The Visual Frequency of Black Life by Peter L’Official
• The Melancholy of the Hedgehog
• Destined for the Dirty
• Why Trump Is an Effective Negotiator
• The Radical Notion of a Smartphone

• Best power station deal: Save $170 on Anker 535 Portable Power Station
• The Burning House by Hanya Yanagihara
• The Vanishing of Reality by Michiko Kakutani
• Paradise for Bookworms
• Pulling Left
• Michael Stipe, R.E.M., and the Anxiety of Influence
• Grilling with Homer by Valerie Stivers
• The Handwriting of Famous People by The Paris Review
• Of Damages and Dog Whistles
• Like You Know Your Own Bones by Crystal Hana Kim