Scientists reported 11th April 2017 that the dark expanse of the second Great Spot is 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometres) across and 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometres) wide.
It’s in the upper atmosphere and much cooler than the hot surroundings, thus the name Great Cold Spot.
Unlike giant planet’s familiar Great Red Spot, this newly discovered weather system is continually changing in shape and size.
It’s formed by the energy from Jupiter’s polar auroras.
Scientists were charting the temperature and density of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
When the researchers compared the data with thousands of images taken in years past by a telescope in Hawaii, the Great Cold Spot stood out.
It could be thousands of years old.
The Great Cold Spot is much more volatile than the slowly changing Great Red Spot.
Jupiter: Know More- Radius: 69,911 km
- Mass: 1.898 × 10^27 kg (317.8 M⊕)
- Surface pressure: 20–200 kPa (cloud layer)
- Equatorial rotation velocity: 12.6 km/s; 45300 km/h
- Polar radius: : 66,854±10 km; 10.517 Earths;
- Important Moons: Europa, Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Adrastea, Amalthea, Thebe
