Simon is co-author of a study on the red spot winds published in the Geophysical Research Letters. “We’re talking about such a small change that if you didn’t have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn’t know it happened,” planetary scientist Amy Simon said in a NASA statement last Monday.
The speed change might not have been spotted if it weren’t for Hubble’s sharp eye. The change in wind speed amounts to around 1.6 mph (2.67 kph) per Earth year. Hubble’s longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible.” “But this is something only Hubble can do. “When I initially saw the results, I asked ‘Does this make sense?’ No one has ever seen this before,” said Michael Wong, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Berkeley and lead author. It can’t peer into the inner workings and depths of the planet.
While researchers know some winds are whipping around faster than others, the reason why is hard to conclude since Hubble is only able to collect data on what’s happening with cloud tops. Images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show the average wind speed within the Great Red Spot exceeding 100 m/s (224 mph or 360 kph).
0 kommentar(er)
