NASA Photographs Twin Storms on Jupiter: The Great Red Spot vs. Oval BA

On Earth, we get to see massive storms that destroy buildings and tear down trees, but you don’t get to see a weather pattern as impressive as the one on Jupiter. The gas giant’s swirling storms are iconic, and NASA’s Juno spacecraft got close to capture them on its camera.

In the image, we can see the Great Red Spot which is massive in comparison to another huge storm called Oval BA. The smaller storm has kept on changing in the past decades, added NASA in a statement:

This new perspective captures the notable Great Red Spot, as well as a massive storm called Oval BA. The storm reached its current size when three smaller spots collided and merged in the year 2000. The Great Red Spot, which is about twice as wide as Oval BA, may have formed from the same process centuries ago.

Oval BA Evolves, Changing Color

NASA also added that Oval BA appears to evolve as its edge has shifted from a pale color to the bold orange ring which the Great Red Spot has now.

Juno was somewhere between 23,800 miles and 34,500 miles away from Jupiter and snapped this photo on 21 December 2018, which was recently beamed back to Earth. The photo you see now has been color-enhanced to show more details compared to the raw image.

So far, thanks to the Juno spacecraft and its powerful instruments aboard, scientists have been able to glean more information on the giant planet and its massive storms. The data from Juno allowed researchers to learn that storms like the Great Red Spot stretch deeper into the planet than what they previously thought.

Juno’s mission is halfway through, and it will continue to work until July 2021 after it completes the rest of the 32 flybys. It will approach the planet again on 12 February, so we expect more photographs and data on the gas giant.