Spotty

Red Spot Faux Pas?

GMA Channel 7 and some Philippine newspapers have reported that a Filipino named Christopher Go "discovered" a new, growing red spot on Jupiter in February 27. Dubbed Red Spot Jr, it was officially named Oval BA. Apparently Go, an amateur astronomer, was able to photographed Oval BA turn from white (in November 2005) to brown (in December 2005) to red recently.

While Go's imaging is a feat in itself, I would want to take issue with the "discovered" part, because it is not entirely correct. The new spot was spotted way back in 2000, when three smaller spots merged. Oval BA was already observed by the Hubble telescope as well as by other astronomers.