Anybody who's taken a look at images of Jupiter has seen its Great Red Spot, the planet's massive storm that's been raging for the past 350 years. This is the first time we're seeing it this close, though, and it's all thanks to NASA's Juno spacecraft.
NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft has successfully completed the closest flyby of Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot and beamed back photos to Earth on 13 July. The spacecraft was launched in 2011 and placed itself in Jupiter’s orbit last year, 4 July 2016.
All of Juno's science instruments and the spacecraft's JunoCam were operating during the flyby over the massive storm that has been raging on giant planet for over 350 years. The pictures can be seen here.
Juno went as close as 9,000 km above the swirling red clouds. The “Great Red Spot” is a 16,000-km-wide storm which is twice the size of the Earth.
“For generations, people from all over the world and all walks of life have marvelled over the Great Red Spot,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
"Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal," Bolton said.
Over the last one year, the basketball court-sized robot has sent back numerous photos and details that has helped in better understanding the giant planet. Scientists had earlier believed that given Jupiter’s enormous size, it’s magnetic field must be greater than that of Earth. With Juno’s findings, it was confirmed that the planet’s magnetic field is 10 times that of Earth. The gas clouds that cover the planet don’t give out a lot of information about the core but it is believed to be “fuzzy”.
The Juno mission is scheduled to end in February 2018 when the robot will plunge into the planet.
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