Stunning new view of Jupiter shows iconic Great Red Spot
Key points
WASHINGTON: NASA has released a stunning new view of a crescent Jupiter which shows the iconic Great Red Spot, along with a series of storms shaped like white ovals known as the ‘string of pearls’.
Jupiter shows iconic Great Red Spot
The image was created by a citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko using data from JunoCam instrument aboard the NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft.
Below the Great Red Spot, a reddish long-lived storm known as Oval BA is visible in the image.
The image was taken on December 11 last year as Juno performed its third close flyby of Jupiter.
At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 458,800 kilometres from the planet.
The Great Red Spot is a giant, spinning storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere. It is like a hurricane on Earth, and is more than twice the size of our planet.
It has been seen on Jupiter ever since people started looking through telescopes about 400 years ago.
