Jupiter Tny Spot Goes From White to Red
Seth Borenstein
Scientists aren't quite sure what's happening to the smaller storm, nicknamed the Little Red Spot or Red Spot Jr. but officially called "Oval BA." It probably gained strength as it shrunk slightly, the same way spinning ice skaters go faster when they move their arms closer, said NASA planetary scientist Amy Simon-Miller. Her findings from the Hubble data were published in the astronomical journal Icarus.
As the storm has grown stronger it's probably picked up red material from lower in the Jupiter atmosphere, most likely some form of sulfur which turns red as part of a chemical reaction, she said.
The color change took astronomers by surprise. And now they figure more surprises are in store as the solar system's largest planet goes into hiding from Earth's prying eyes until January, moving behind the sun.
"We found that Jupiter tends to do interesting things behind the sun and we can't see it," Simon-Miller said.
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On the Net:
NASA on the Little Red Spot:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/
2006/little_red_spot.html
Hubble Space Telescope: http://hubblesite.org/