Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is an anomaly with no known equal in our solar system. The powerful anticyclone churns beneath the planet’s equator, where it produces winds estimated at between 270 and 425 mph. While it has shrunk in recent decades (to just a bit wider than Earth), it’s probably not going anywhere soon.
The spot has marked Jupiter since at least 1831, when amateur astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe first observed the storm.
Saturn, by contrast, is a bit dull in appearance and lacks in a persistent spot. But a recent study revealed new details about the atmosphere’s surprisingly varied inner life. Just like Jupiter, storms have left their mark on Saturn, altering chemical compositions for years afterward.
While Saturn’s major storms are not as persistent as the Great Red Spot, they splash across the ringed planet in dramatic fashion. Every 20 to 30 years, they spin up like massive ...
