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Astronomers have been observing Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,

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a massive storm big enough to swallow Earth,

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for over 150 years. 

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However, new discoveries continue to emerge,  

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especially with NASA’s Hubble Space 
Telescope taking close-up views. 

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Hubble’s latest observations,

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gathered over 90 days from December 2023 to March 2024,  

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show that the Great Red Spot is less 
stable than it seems.

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The data reveal that the Great Red Spot is wobbling like a bowl of gelatin.

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Hubble’s images allowed  

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astronomers to create a time-lapse 
movie of the storm’s squiggly motion. 

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While scientists knew the storm's 
position changed slightly over time,  

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they didn’t expect to see its size fluctuate.

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Thanks to Hubble’s high resolution,

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they found that the Great Red Spot is squeezing 
in and out while speeding up and slowing down. 

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Hubble observes Jupiter and the other 
outer planets yearly through the Outer  

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Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, 
or OPAL, but these particular images  

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were part of a special Great Red Spot study.

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The team has been tracking the shrinking Great Red Spot

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since the OPAL program began 10 years ago

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and predicts it will continue to shrink and eventually  

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take on a more stable, less-elongated shape.

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Researchers hope that future high-resolution

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images from Hubble might reveal other clues 
about what’s causing the storm’s fluctuations. 

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Studying the biggest storms in our solar 
system helps scientists understand hurricane  

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patterns on Earth and could even apply 
to weather on planets around other stars.

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