What is the Great Red Spot? Is it the same type of storm as a hurricane on Earth?
Explain.” The Great Red Spot is a weather pattern in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere and has been visible for as long as telescopes have been able to detect it. It is different from a hurricane on Earth because it is a high pressure storm with winds spinning counterclockwise, possibly kept spinning because of nearby belts and zones. On Earth hurricane winds spin clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and circulate around low pressure regions. “What is synchronous rotation? What causes it? Explain why our Moon, most of the jovian moons, and Pluto and Charon rotate synchronously. How is Mercury’s rotation similar to synchronous rotation?” Synchronous rotation is when a rotating object always shows the same face to the object it’s orbiting. It occurs when its rotation and orbiting period are equal. Tidal forces exerted by planets on their moons cause synchronous rotation by forcing the moons to reshape until they no longer rotate through their tidal bulge. All but the smallest and most distan
