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Great Red Spot
noun
- a large long-lived oval feature, south of Jupiter's equator, that is an anticyclonic disturbance in the atmosphere
Great Red Spot
- A very large, high-pressure atmospheric feature on the planet Jupiter, characterized by anticyclonic winds circulating at a speed of approximately 400 km (248 mi) per hour. The storm has persisted on Jupiter's surface for more than 300 years since first observed through telescopes; the cause of its reddish color is unknown.
Example Sentences
Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot has persisted for at least 190 years and is likely a different spot from the one observed by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1665, a new study reports.
The Great Red Spot is the largest known planetary vortex within the solar system, but its age has long been debated, and the mechanism that led to its formation has remained obscure.
"From the measurements of sizes and movements, we deduced that it is highly unlikely that the current Great Red Spot was the 'Permanent Spot' observed by Cassini," said Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a planetary scientist at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, who led this research.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a massive atmospheric vortex, with a diameter approximately that of Earth's.
In 1665, Cassini discovered a dark oval at the same latitude as today's Great Red Spot and named it the "Permanent Spot," as he and other astronomers observed it until 1713, when they lost track of it.
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