Classical astronomers have observed another great red spot on Jupiter.

In 1665, astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini observed a violent storm raging over Jupiter. It became known as the Great Red Spot, a rotating oval of clouds nearly twice the width of Earth. However, new research shows that the red-hued feature detected by Cassini is not the storm we see today.

Using historical observations of Jupiter from the 17th century, a team of scientists found that big red spot It probably lasted only 190 years, compared to 300 years of whirling winds. paper published in Letters on Geophysical ResearchResearchers say the storm observed by Cassini no longer exists, but a new one was born in its place years later.

Having discovered a dark reddish oval on Jupiter, Cassini and other astronomers continued to observe the storm until 1713. More than a century. After this the storm was not visible. Only in 1831 did astronomers observe a similar oval at the same latitude. Scientists have since debated whether it was the same storm or a different one.

The misnamed “Permanent Point” likely disappeared sometime between the mid-18th and 19th centuries, according to the researchers behind the new paper. On the other hand, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may be at least 190 years old.

The Great Red Spot is also much larger than its older counterpart, extending over 350 kilometers (200 miles). When it was first observed, the Great Red Spot extended over 39,000 kilometers (24,200 miles), but has since become smaller. Today, the storm has spread over 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) and its shape has become more rounded. According to the study, previous observations of the persistent sunspot suggest the storm’s size would have been three times larger than the Great Red Spot.

The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system and is one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. Unlike hurricanes on Earth, the Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, suggesting it is a high pressure system. The reason the storm has raged all these years may have to do with Jupiter’s gaseous nature. Storms on Earth tend to die down once they reach land, but Jupiter is made of liquid layers rather than a solid surface.

Understanding the giant storm is challenging because Jupiter’s clouds make it difficult to clearly see the Great Red Spot in its lower atmosphere. A new study suggests that the Red Spot may have formed as a result of a giant superstorm that resulted in the merger of several smaller vortices. There is still much to be learned about Jupiter’s raging storms, but scientists can look to historical observations to unravel the mysteries of the Jupiter system.

“It was very motivating and inspiring to turn to the notes and drawings of Jupiter and its permanent location made by the great astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini, as well as his papers from the second half of the 17th century describing this phenomenon,” Agustin Sanchez – Lavega, Planet “A scientist at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, and the lead author of the new paper,” the statement said. “Others before us have explored these observations, and now we have quantified the results.”

Further: Astronomers search for shadows of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids