Structure and Dynamics of the Little Red Spot on Jupiter

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The New Horizons spacecraft obtained high resolution images of the Little Red Spot in Jupiter's atmosphere, during the New Horizons Jupiter encounter in January - March, 2007. The Little Red Spot is an Earth-sized storm that formed from the coalescence of three, 60-year old, white ovals starting in 1998 and that became clearly red in 2006. The New Horizons observations have been combined for the first time with Jupiter observations from the Very Large Telescope array in Chile and from the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the Little Red Spot. Within this cold anticyclonic oval, the peak wind speeds reach 170 m/s, and the vertical gradient length, from the thermal wind equation, exceeds 90 km. Horizontal flow divergences are identified. The dynamical structure of the Little Red Spot is similar to that of the Great Red Spot. It is suggested that both spots may now persist for centuries, although the Little Red Spot attained its current state only recently.

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