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For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot ...

mages sent back from New Horizons earlier this year show stormy features similar to Earth's, including lightning on both of Jupiter's poles. Enlarge Photo Printer Friendly Email to a Friend RELATED Virtual Solar System Photo in the News: Jupiter Spawns a New Red Spot (March 7, 2006) NASA Probe Heads to Pluto (January 19, 2006) The images suggest the storms are caused by the heat from the planet itself, rather than the sun, and are maintained by circulation patterns that could be global in scale. Perhaps even more important, Jupiter's weather appears to be different than it was when NASA...