Why is the red spot red on Jupiter?

The source of the red coloration is unknown; suggestions range from compounds of sulfur and phosphorus to organic material, any of which could be produced by lightning discharges or by high-altitude photochemical reactions. The Great Red Spot extends well above Jupiter’s main cloud layers.

What is inside the red spot on Jupiter?

The Great Red Spot is like a storm here on Earth, but supersized. “It’s basically clouds,” says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. Really, “it’s not all that dissimilar to the kinds of things we know as cyclones or hurricanes or typhoons on Earth.”

Is Jupiter’s eye getting smaller?

The Great Red Spot is a high-pressure system located in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. “In the Voyager era, you could fit about three Earth across the Great Red Spot, but it’s been steadily shrinking and is now just bigger than the Earth,” said the paper’s co-author Amy Simon, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard.

Is it hot or cold in Jupiter?

The temperature in the clouds of Jupiter is about minus 145 degrees Celsius (minus 234 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature near the planet’s center is much, much hotter. The core temperature may be about 24,000 degrees Celsius (43,000 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s hotter than the surface of the sun!

How big is Jupiter’s storm?

Measuring 16,350 km (10,160 mi) in width as of 3 April 2017, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 1.3 times the diameter of Earth. The cloud-tops of this storm are about 8 km (5.0 mi) above the surrounding cloud-tops.

What planet rotates on its side?

Uranus
This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin on its side, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball. The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star.

Are Saturn’s rings solid?

Why not just park a spacecraft there to study Saturn and its moons? Truth is, the rings only look solid. They are really a jumbled mess made up of millions and millions of pieces of ice and rock, ranging in size from tiny grains of dust to chunks bigger than a house.

Could a human stand on Jupiter?

Have you ever wondered what it might feel like to stand on Jupiter’s surface? Jupiter is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with some other trace gases. There is no firm surface on Jupiter, so if you tried to stand on the planet, you sink down and be crushed by the intense pressure inside the planet.