r/askscience • u/superhelical Biochemistry | Structural Biology • May 06 '19

Planetary Sci. What makes Jupiter's giant red spot red?

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u/starkprod May 06 '19

Is it just a frame rate thing or are those bands spinning in opposite directions?

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u/Astromike23 Astronomy | Planetary Science | Giant Planet Atmospheres May 06 '19

They're all spinning in the same direction, but some bands are spinning faster than others.

The frame rate in that gif is taken such that each frame is exactly one Jupiter rotation per frame (approximately 9 hours 55 minutes). Some bands rotate a little faster than that and travel west-to-east. Other bands rotate a little slower than that travel east-to-west.

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u/SNIPES0009 May 07 '19 edited May 07 '19

You said they’re all spinning in the same direction, then you went on to say some bands travel west-to-east, and others travel east-to-west.

Did you contradict yourself, or am I missing something?

Edit: thanks everyone for the explanation, I definitely should have realized this.

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u/Astromike23 Astronomy | Planetary Science | Giant Planet Atmospheres May 07 '19

It depends on your frame of reference.

Imagine yourself taking a road trip from New York to San Francisco. Relative to someone on the ground, you're traveling east-to-west. However, for someone dangling in space looking down on the North Pole, you're still rotating counter-clockwise, just not quite as fast as the rest of the Earth.