Day 4 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A prominent string of alternating storms is visible across the low northern latitudes of Jupiter, forming a “vortex street,” as some planetary astronomers call it. Hubble recently observed this wave pattern of nested cyclones and anticyclones, locked together like alternating gears. If the storms get close enough to one another and merge together, they could build an even larger storm, potentially rivaling the current size of the Great Red Spot. The orange-colored moon Io photobombs this view, casting a shadow onto Jupiter’s cloudtops. For a sense of scale, Io is about one quarter of the Earth’s own diameter, or just a bit larger than our own moon.
See the full advent calendar here, as a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.
