Photo: Hubble images show that the Baby Red Spot on Jupiter, at left in first frame, has moved and seems to have been caught up in the Great Red Spot.
Can a planet change its spots? Jupiter, where spots are really just large storms, seems to be in the process of doing so.
A small red spot that formed on the surface this year appears to have met its match in the Great Red Spot. Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on June 28 and July 8 show that the small spot, which has the misfortune to lie at the same latitude as the great one, has moved from the west side of the giant to the east side.But more than that, the small spot, known informally as Baby Red Spot, seems to have gotten caught in the maelstrom that is the great spot (which is about 18,000 miles wide and packs winds up to about 400 miles per hour). Baby Red appears to be coming apart and is definitely turning paler.Spots on Jupiter are thought to turn red when the winds become so powerful that they draw certain gases from deep in the atmosphere that change color when exposed to sunlight. So if Baby Red is losing its color, that probably means its winds are diminishing, its energy being absorbed by the giant spot. Subsuming smaller spots may be one way the great one persists — it has been around for centuries, at least.A medium-size spot, officially known as Oval BA but often called Red Spot Jr., is also in the images, south of the giant. It has been going strong since 2000 and turned red about two years ago. It is far enough south of the giant to be unaffected by it — for now.
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