GRS

Not known for their great ingenuity at naming objects, astronomers named the great red spot on Jupiter “The Great Red Spot”. The large anti-cyclone in Jupiter’s atmosphere has probably been visible since astronomers have been looking at Jupiter with telescopes. Reports of observations were made as early 1665, but since there were gaps in coverage there is some question as to whether or not the same storm was observed. The current spot has been under more or less continuous observation since 1879.

Over time the storm has gotten bigger and smaller, redder and less red. Right now (2019) it has shrunken to be only about 1.3 times the diameter of the Earth but is much redder than it was only a couple of years ago. The spot is south of the Jovian equator, but the planet is normally shown with south at the top to match the view in most telescopes.