News Planetary Science

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has company. Meet the Great Cold Spot

Aurora may fuel colder mark in planet’s northern atmosphere

Jupiter's cold spot

SPOTTED  Jupiter’s northern aurora, shown in this Hubble Space Telescope image, may help generate the newly detected “Great Cold Spot” in the planet’s atmosphere.

J. Nichols/University of Leicester, NASA, ESA

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

Jupiter’s got a second giant spot.

Called the Great Cold Spot, this dark mark is twice as big as Earth, but cooler and more fickle than the planet’s famous (and similarly sized) Great Red Spot.