New Juno Results Reveal The Weirdness Of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is the planet’s most noticeable feature, defining Jupiter in the same way that Saturn is defined by its rings. There’s so much still to learn about this gas giant, and new results from the Juno probe have revealed data about the depth, temperature, and evolution of the spot. The Great Red spot is a swirling storm with wind speeds between 270 to 425 miles per hour. It’s wider than the Earth’s diameter. But the new Juno results have added that it’s probably 200 miles deep, too—10 to 100 times thicker than the Earth’s crust. On top of that, the spot is definitely shrinking. The new measurements indicate that the storm has shrunk by a third in width and an eighth in height since 1979.