07-03-2017, 06:19 PM
Thanks, HOTPE. Astronomy.com has a more detailed article which includes the video and also adds the following which the combined Juno and MK observations might help answer:
"Among the Red Spot’s many mysteries are its shrinking behavior — since Voyager 1 and 2 measured the storm at 14,500 miles (23,300km) across in 1979, it’s lost several thousand miles in width. Other mysteries associated with the storm include the exact mechanism that produces its red color, which has varied over the years from red to brown."
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/07/gr...ot-closeup
The different colored bands we see in Jupiter's atmosphere have been explained as seeing various depths within the atmosphere, but there are still outstanding questions about this. Given the odd color of the Great Red Spot, these observations may well help give us a better explanation of what's going on. The storm may well have lasted for a few hundred years so it'd be nice to really understand it after all these years!
Edited to fix a typo.
"Among the Red Spot’s many mysteries are its shrinking behavior — since Voyager 1 and 2 measured the storm at 14,500 miles (23,300km) across in 1979, it’s lost several thousand miles in width. Other mysteries associated with the storm include the exact mechanism that produces its red color, which has varied over the years from red to brown."
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/07/gr...ot-closeup
The different colored bands we see in Jupiter's atmosphere have been explained as seeing various depths within the atmosphere, but there are still outstanding questions about this. Given the odd color of the Great Red Spot, these observations may well help give us a better explanation of what's going on. The storm may well have lasted for a few hundred years so it'd be nice to really understand it after all these years!
Edited to fix a typo.