What appears to be a red spot from space is actually a giant high-pressure vortex twice the size of Earth. Recent observations suggest that the storm has winds of up to 400 miles per hour, and its distinctive color may be the result of elements in Jupiter’s atmosphere interacting with cosmic rays and other radiation. But although the spot has been known about for centuries, much about it still remains a mystery. Mystery For researchers.
Cassini, known as a pioneer of telescopic astronomy, saw Cassini described the sunspot as a dark oval in 1665, describing it as “a perpetual spot, often seen to appear in the same place and of the same size and shape.” Astronomers recorded sightings of the sunspot until 1713, after which observations ceased. It was not until 1831 that other scientists reported that the sunspot had reappeared in the same place identified by Cassini.
write Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, modern researchers used historical observations to track the size and movement of sunspots over the years, comparing the old and modern observations, and simulating different ways in which sunspots could have formed.
Their analysis suggests that the sunspots we see today are closer to those observed in the 1800s than to those observed by Cassini so long ago. Over time, the researchers write, sunspots have become smaller and rounder, likely due to their faster rotation. They conclude that sunspots may have formed from erratic winds that gave rise to observable protostorms that then disappeared and reappeared.
“Looking back at Cassini’s records and drawings has been extremely inspiring and thought-provoking,” study leader Agustín Sánchez Lavega, professor of applied physics at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, said in a news release. releaseHe added, “Others have investigated these observations before us, and now we have quantified the results.”