The sheer speed of the winds should be jaw slacking to any Earth-bound observer: nearly at the speed of sound, at the peak point. [Were one able to survive inside the giant maw of this storm, perhaps four times the size of the entire Earth, one might hear unrelenting sonic booms, as large sections of the outer eye-wall exceeded the speed of sound -- and then fell back again -- like a vast machine gunning percussion, endlessly -- about forty miles below the cloud tops.]
Then consider that this storm has likely been raging since before Galileo trained his telescope (a small spy-glass actually) on the mighty Lord Jupiter.
Finally, though we now well-know it is changing shape (via direct and precise observations), and slowing down in the center -- out at the edge, it is increasing in sheer-velocity. . . perhaps that is how this vast cyclone recharges itself, over a five hundered plus year life-span. We shall see:
. . .Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost “lane” of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are accelerating -- a discovery only made possible by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which has monitored the planet for more than a decade (see Goddard video explainer, below).
Researchers analyzing Hubble’s regular “storm reports” found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as a high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8% from 2009 to 2020. In contrast, the winds near the red spot’s innermost region are moving significantly more slowly, like someone cruising lazily on a sunny Sunday afternoon. . . .
Now you know. . . just how little we really. . . know.
नमस्ते
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