THREE giant storms on Jupiter have merged to form a massive storm half the
size of the planet鈥檚 famous Great Red Spot. Observations of the new 鈥済reat white
spot鈥� could reveal if this was how the Red Spot formed, says Glenn Orton of the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The Red Spot is a vortex of swirling gas that has persisted for well over 300
years. The three smaller white vortices appeared about 60 years ago. Two merged
early in 1998 when Jupiter was behind the Sun, and this March the remaining two
coalesced to form a storm 12,000 kilometres long. Five months later and it鈥檚
still going strong, Orton and his colleagues reported this week at a meeting of
the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena.