NASA warns that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot could be about to disappear

One of the best-known features of any planet in our solar system could be about to vanish – Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, the gas giant’s iconic, 10,000-mile-wide storm.

The storm has been monitored since 1830, when telescope technology allowed us to see it, and has possibly existed for more than 350 years.

But it could be about to disappear – and may only last 10 or 20 more years, according to a NASA researcher speaking to Business Insider.

Glenn Orton of NASA JPL, says ‘In truth, the Great Red Spot has been shrinking for a long time.

When it was first spotted, it was twice as wide as Earth, but now it’s just 1.3 times the diameter of our planet, Orgon says.

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Orton says, ‘The GRS is stable and long-lived, because it’s ‘wedged’ between two jet streams that are moving in opposite directions.’

Last year, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew over the storm, passing just 5,600 miles above the Great Red Spot.

The Juno probe took five years to make the 1.7 billion mile journey to the solar system’s largest planet – and is now gathering data on the mysterious gas giant.