Mystery Behind Jupiter's Great Red Spot Unveiled

The location was 24,233 miles across in 1879, and it has gradually reduced to 8,700 miles in diameter currently, gradually taking on a rounder shape rather than an oval one.

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter has long been known, but scientists have just recently learned more about how and when formed. The huge storm that is responsible for the enormous swirl on the side of the largest planet in the solar system is believed to have been raging for more than 300 years and is larger than the entire Earth, as per a report in Newsweek.

Astronomers have modelled how the storm began and lasted for so long. They concluded that it may not be as old as previously believed, according to research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

It was thought that Giovanni Cassini, who termed it the Permanent Spot, was the first person to observe the Great Red Spot, a gigantic storm situated in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. However, it wasn't until the 1830s that the red area was once more discovered and named the Great Red Spot (GRS). Some speculate that Cassini may have instead seen an earlier, larger storm on the planet's surface. To ascertain how the spot would have evolved and lasted for so long whether the Permanent Spot was an early form of the GRS researchers examined observations of the spot made over several centuries, starting in the 1600s.