Nasa’s Juno probe completes fly-by over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
The spacecraft the massive storm system which is wider than the Earth.
A Nasa spacecraft has soared close to the crimson cloud tops of Jupiter’s most extraordinary feature, the Great Red Spot.
The US space agency’s Juno probe passed just 5,600 miles (9,000 km) above the massive storm system, which is wider than the Earth and may have been raging for more than 350 years.
The close fly-by was completed during Juno’s sixth scientific orbit of the solar system’s biggest planet.
Juno principal investigator Dr Scott Bolton, from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said: “For generations people from all over the world and all walks of life have marvelled over the Great Red Spot.
“Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal.”
The 10,000 mile (16,000 km) wide Great Red Spot has been observed since 1830 but is thought to have existed for hundreds of years longer. In more recent times it has appeared to be shrinking.
The spacecraft was launched on August 5 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
On July 5 at 3.30am UK time, Juno logged exactly one year in Jupiter orbit, having travelled a total of 71 million miles (114.5 million km) around the gas giant.
Early results from the mission have shown Jupiter to be a turbulent world with a complex interior structure, energetic polar auroras and huge polar cyclones.
