Jupiter’s signature feature — its Great Red Spot — might not be the same dark spot seen on the giant planet more than three centuries ago.
From 1665 to 1713, astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini and others observed a dark oval — nicknamed the Permanent Spot — on Jupiter at the same latitude where the Great Red Spot now swirls. Researchers today have wondered whether these spots are one and the same.
An analysis of sketches and photographs of Jupiter spanning nearly 360 years suggests the spots are distinct, researchers report in the June 28 Geophysical Research Letters. Computer simulations from the same study also hint at the Great Red
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