Astronomers first spotted—and drew pictures of—Jupiter's "Great Red Spot" some 300 years ago. It's that "eye of Sauron" spot on the Southern Hemisphere. In reality, it's a very large, very ancient storm, and as the weather on 
Jupiter changes, so does the Spot. The Spot really is properly called "Great"; it is so far the largest known storm in our Solar System, with a diameter of 15,400 miles. In other words, just the area covered by the storm on Jupiter is almost twice the size of Earth (and about one-sixth of Jupiter’s diameter). We've been watching the spot long enough now that we can see it is definitely shrinking. What's more, as currents and weather patterns shift, we've witnessed, albeit at a very great distance, new storms and smaller spots appearing in Jupiter's images. Read more
