Jupiter has a warm heart located in the centre of its famous Red Spot, scientists have learned. The spot is a swirling cold storm system with higher temperatures at its core, new thermal imaging studies have shown.

An international team of astronomers observed the giant planet from three telescopes in Chile and Hawaii.

Dr Glenn Orton, from the American space agency Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who led the study, said: ''This is our first detailed look inside the biggest storm of the solar system.

''We once thought the Great Red Spot was a plain old oval without much structure, but these new results show that it is in fact extremely complicated.''

One finding was that the most intense orange-red central part of the spot was a few degrees warmer than the area around it.

As well as a warm ''heart'', the images show dark lanes at the edge of the storm where gases are descending into deeper levels of Jupiter's atmosphere.

British team member Dr Leigh Fletcher, from Oxford University, said: ''Although we can speculate, we still don't know for sure which chemicals or processes are causing that deep red colour, but we do know now that it is related to changes in the environmental conditions right in the heart of the storm.''

Source: Telegraph.co.uk