Although the largest storm in the Solar System, with an extension of 16,000 kilometers, the Great Red Spot from Jupiter has one depth between 300 and 500 kilometers, decidedly contained compared to the 3,000 kilometers reached by the zonal winds that blow in an east-west direction, drawing the bands of the gas giant planet. This is demonstrated by the gravity measurements made by the probe Juno of NASA thanks to the KaT (Ka-Band Translator) tool, created by Thales Alenia Space Italia with the support of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The study, published in the journal Science, is coordinated by Marzia Parisi, a former Sapienza PhD student now at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Jpl), together with an international group including Daniele Durante and Luciano Iess, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and aerospace of the Sapienza University of Rome.
Since the interior of Jupiter is not directly observable, to understand its most intimate structure we resort to accurate measurements of the gravitational field, which is an expression of the distribution of mass within the planet. Data collected by Juno during two close flyovers in February and July 2019, “attest to one mass of the storm equal to about half of the entire Earth’s atmosphere e a little less than that of all the water of the Mediterranean Sea”, Explains Daniele Durante.
Comparison between the dimensions of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and those of the Earth (source: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS, Kevin M. Gill (CC BY), NASA)
“They represent the Great Red Spot as an object very similar to a very large disk (its smaller size is approximately equal to the diameter of the Earth) but rather thin, with characteristics reminiscent of those of the largest terrestrial storms”.
Juno’s measurements, adds Luciano Iess, “provided the third dimension to that phenomenon of Jupiter’s atmosphere that has attracted the attention of many of us, as well as that of astronomers for more than 300 years, showing how a storm is superficial certainly very extensive, but very shallow. This new measure will help to understand its nature, its evolution and, perhaps, its possible disappearance ”.
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