7 Great Facts about Jupiter

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is enormous

This isn’t a spot. Three Earth-sized planets can fit inside it because it is more than 16,000 km east to west. The GRS has been around for over three centuries. According to planetary scientist Paul Byrne, this spot is clouded. More like what we know on Earth as a “storm” but in a supersized sense.

Scientists are divided on the cause of the red color. To some, it’s the effect of chemicals burrowed deep beneath the storm’s cloud tops. Others think that sunlight is responsible. It splits up the chemicals in the storm’s(clouds) upper atmosphere hence the red color. This means that the top of the Great Red Spot is deep red. But the rest of the places may not be very red.

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