Strange Polygon-Shaped Cyclones On Jupiter Puzzle Scientists

Jupiter is one of the most-studied planets by space scientists. The activities happening on the surface of the gas giant have always fascinated the experts, who try to decode those occurrences to understand the atmosphere of the planet in their bid to search signs of life outside Earth. Now, a group of scientists have shed new light on the strange storms that encircle Jupiter's north pole, according to a report in Vice News. Each of these storms is as large as the United States, the outlet further said.

Talking about the stability of these storms, the scientists, led by Andrew P Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology, suggested that "an anticyclonic ring" between the main cyclone and the smaller cyclones is keeping the clusters in their unique polygonal patterns.

But the study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, is still not able to answer other questions about the storms on Jupiter.

"Since 2017 the Juno spacecraft has observed a cyclone at the north pole of Jupiter surrounded by eight smaller cyclones arranged in a polygonal pattern," the study said. "It is not clear why this configuration is so stable or how it is maintained."

"The polygons and the individual vortices that comprise them have been stable for the four years since Juno discovered them," the researchers further said. "The polygonal patterns rotate slowly, or not at all."

The study is based on the analysis of images captured by Juno's Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument. However, they were not able to find results on the previously expected lines regarding "the expected signature of convection-a spatial correlation between divergence and anticyclonic vorticity."

They concluded the more research is needed on Jupiter's southern cyclones to reconcile the conflicting data.