Storms

The Great Red Spot and other weather

Stripes made of ammonia clouds, winds faster than a racing car, cyclones in geometric patterns and a storm that has been going for centuries.

Belts and zones

The dark orange stripes are called belts and the lighter bands are zones. Their winds blow east and west in opposite directions. NASA Science: Jupiter facts Jupiter’s stripes and swirls are cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in hydrogen and helium. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

Jupiter probably has three cloud layers: ammonia ice on top, ammonium hydrosulfide in the middle, and water ice and vapour deepest down. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

Some of Jupiter’s winds reach 539 km/h at the equator. NASA Science: Jupiter facts Jupiter’s jet streams reach about 3,200 km deep. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

The Great Red Spot

A huge swirling red-orange oval among wavy cream and brown clouds — The Great Red Spot from Voyager 1, 4 March 1979: a colour mosaic processed by Björn Jónsson.Photo: NASA / JPL / Björn Jónsson, Public domain, Commons

The Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

NASA’s Jupiter facts page says the Great Red Spot has been observed for more than 300 years. NASA Science: Jupiter facts · checked 27 Oct 2026 A 2024 NASA Hubble article says astronomers have observed it for at least 150 years. NASA Science: Hubble watches the Great Red Spot behave like a stress ball (2024) · checked 27 Oct 2026

Shrinking

Late 1800s Observations from the late 1800s measured the Great Red Spot as up to 25,500 miles (about 41,000 km) on its long axis. NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014)
1979 Voyager 1 and 2 measured it at 14,500 miles (about 23,300 km) across in 1979. NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014)
1995 A 1995 Hubble photo put its long axis at about 13,020 miles (about 20,950 km). NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014)
2009 In 2009 it measured 11,130 miles (about 17,910 km) across. NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014)
2014 In 2014, Hubble measured it at about 10,250 miles (about 16,500 km) across, the smallest ever measured at that time. NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014)

Astronomers have watched the Great Red Spot shrink since the 1930s, and from 2012 it shrank faster, turning from an oval towards a circle. NASA Science: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is shrinking (2014) · checked 27 Oct 2026

Jupiter with a smaller, rounder Great Red Spot — Jupiter on 21 April 2014, photographed by Hubble, when the Great Red Spot was the smallest ever measured at that time.Photo: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), Public domain, Commons

Line Earths up across it for yourself: try the storm explorer →

The jelly-wobble

Hubble watched it for 90 days in 2023–24 and saw it jiggle in size and shape, like a bowl of jelly. The cause is unknown. NASA Science: Hubble watches the Great Red Spot behave like a stress ball (2024)

Juno’s gravity data suggest the Great Red Spot reaches about 500 km below the cloud tops. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

The Little Red Spot

Three smaller ovals merged to form the Little Red Spot, about half the size of the Great Red Spot. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

Cyclones at the poles

Juno found giant cyclones at Jupiter’s poles: eight in an octagon in the north and five in a pentagon in the south. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

Jupiter’s south pole seen from below: a blue-grey swirl of oval storms — Jupiter’s south pole, from NASA’s Juno spacecraft on 27 August 2016.Photo: NASA, Public domain, Commons

Auroras

Jupiter with a bright blue glowing ring of light around its pole — Auroras glowing at Jupiter’s pole, from Hubble’s far-ultraviolet observations in 2016.Photo: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester), Public domain, Commons

Jupiter has auroras too, hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s. NASA Space Place: All about Jupiter

Rings

Jupiter has rings, discovered by Voyager 1 in 1979. They are dark and faint, and hard to see unless the Sun is behind them. NASA Science: Jupiter facts

When a comet hit

In July 1994, pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter, from 16 to 22 July: the first time spacecraft watched two solar system bodies collide. NASA Science: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 When it was found in 1993, the comet was already torn into more than 20 pieces by Jupiter’s gravity. NASA Science: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

A grey picture of Jupiter with a row of dark spots across its upper half — Dark scars left by pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, seen by Hubble in 1994.Photo: NASA, Hubble Space Telescope (HubbleSite 1994-44), Public domain, Commons

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