Jupiter storms to brush

I found this to be a pretty interesting story. "Big Red" or the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, and "Red Jr" a six year old storm that's half the size, but has winds just as strong, are going to have a very close pass to each other around July 4th. They aren't going to have a direct impact, but the outer bands are supposed to come extremely close. Scientists are watching to see what will happen.

From 2000-2005 Red Jr was actually a white storm that appeared no different than any other storm. Then this year they noticed a red spot appearing the the storm. The theory is that the storm was intensifying. One theory is that when the storms pass this year, Oval BA (Red Jr) will be pushed toward the Southern Jet Stream, which flows against the rotation of the storm, and could possibly turn it back to a white spot again.

(SPACE.com) -- Astronomers on Earth will have ringside seats to a face-off between two of the biggest storms in the solar system.

In one corner will be Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a behemoth of a tempest that is twice as large as Earth and whose 350 miles per hour winds have been whirling for hundreds of years.

Its contender will be Oval BA, also known as "Red Jr.," a young six-year storm that is only half Great Red's size but whose winds are just as fierce.

The two are approaching each other now and are expected to have their closest approach on the Fourth of July, according to Amy Simon-Miller, an astronomer at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland who has been monitoring the storms.

www.cnn.com...

[edit on 6/5/2006 by Zaphod58]

Cool. It's always been wondered what keeps the Great Red Spot going. It's very possible that smaller spots are created in the same region and then are "swallowed" by the Great One.