Jupiter’s ‘Red Spot Jr.’ Is Photographed
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot -- a high-pressure storm on the big planet’s surface -- has been around for centuries, but on Monday, astronomers released images of a young, smaller Jovian storm they call Red Spot Jr.
Using the Keck II telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, scientists from UC Berkeley and the W.M. Keck Observatory captured a high-resolution picture of both spots on July 20.
Red Spot Jr. is about as wide as Earth and formed between 1998 and 2000.
It turned red in December 2005.
The Great Red Spot is nearly twice that size and has been circling Jupiter for at least 342 years.
