page_title: Extraterrestrial vortex
section_title: Jupiter
hierarchical_section_title: Extraterrestrial vortex / Jupiter
caption_attribution_description: English: The Great Red Spot as seen from Voyager 1 This dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings was obtained by Voyager 1 on February 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometers) from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 100 miles (160 kilometers) across can be seen here. The colorful, wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex and variable wave motion. To give a sense of Jupiter's scale, the white oval storm directly below the Great Red Spot is approximately the same diameter as Earth. Suggested for English Wikipedia:alternative text for images: quarter view of Jupiter with the Great Red Spot at middle top as orange oval within a turbulent belt of wavy clouds. Below the Great Red Spot are various bands of turbulent clouds with smaller spots: some pale cream, others dark brown. Français&#160;: La grande tache rouge de Jupiter vue par Voyager 1 le 25 février 1979, d'une distance de 9,2 million de kilomètres. Les plus petits détails visibles font 160 km environ. La zone colorée et ondulante à gauche de la tache correspond à une région ayant des mouvements très complexes et variables. L'ovale blanc juste en dessous de la grande tache rouge a le même diamètre que la planète terre.
context_page_description: An extraterrestrial vortex is a vortex that occurs on planets and natural satellites other than Earth that have sufficient atmospheres. Most observed extraterrestrial vortices have been seen in large cyclones, or anticyclones. However, occasional dust storms have been known to produce vortices on Mars and Titan. Various spacecraft missions have recorded evidence of past and present extraterrestrial vortices. The largest extraterrestrial vortices are found on the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.
context_section_description: Jupiter's atmosphere is lined with hundreds of vortices most likely to be cyclones, or anticyclones, similar to those on Earth. Voyager and Cassini discovered that, unlike the terrestrial atmosphere, 90% of Jovian vortices are anticyclones, meaning they rotate in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation. Many cyclones have showed up and disappeared over the years with some even merging to form larger cyclones.
  When NASA's Juno Spacecraft arrived at Jupiter in 2016, it observed giant cyclones encircling the north and south poles of the planet. Nine large cyclones were spotted around the north pole and 6 around the south pole. Upon further flybys, Juno spotted another cyclone at the south pole and noticed that 6 of the 7 cyclones formed a hexagonal arrangement around the cyclone at the center of the south pole. Data from Juno has shown that this storm system is stable and there have been no signs of vortices attempting to merge.
  The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is, by far, the largest extraterrestrial anticyclone (or cyclone) known. The Great Red Spot is located in the southern hemisphere and as wind speeds greater than any storm ever measured on Earth. New data from Juno found that the storm penetrates into Jupiter's atmosphere about 200 miles (300 km). The giant storm has been monitored since 1830 but has possibly survived for over 350 years. Over 100 years ago, the Great Red Spot was well over two Earths wide but has been shrinking ever since. When Voyagers 1 and 2 flew by in 1979, they measured the massive cyclone to be twice Earth's diameter. Measurements today from telescopes have measured a diameter of 1.3 Earths wide.
  Oval BA (or Red Spot Jr.) is the second-largest storm on Jupiter and formed from the merging of 3 smaller cyclones in 2000. It is located just to the south of the Great Red Spot and has been increasing in size in recent years, slowly turning a more uniform white.
  The Great Dark Spot is a feature observed near Jupiter's north pole in 2000 by the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft that was a short-lived dark cloud that grew to the size of the Great Red Spot before disappearing after 11 weeks. The phenomenon is speculated by scientists to be a side-effect of strong auroras on Jupiter.
caption: Great Red Spot, with Oval BA to the south
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