Scientists are about to get an up-close and personal look at Jupiter’s most famous landmark, the Great Red Spot.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will be directly over the spot shortly after 10 p.m. ET on Monday, July 10, about 5,600 miles above the gas giant’s cloud tops. That’s closer than any spacecraft has been before.
The spot is actually a giant storm that has been blowing on Jupiter for centuries. It’s huge, larger than the Earth in diameter.
“It’s lasted a really long time,” says Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and principal scientist for NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. “No scientists really understand exactly how that storm is created or why it could last so long.”
Not only will Juno’s camera be able to capture detailed images of the spot, but the probe also carries scientific instruments that can provide additional details about the storm. For example, the microwave radiometer can peer through the clouds and see what kinds of atmospheric structures underpin the spot.
“It’s possible that the roots are quite deep,” says Bolton. “So we’ll be able to take a look at that and see what’s underneath the cloud tops.”
Bolton and his colleagues are planning to bring a lot of astronomical resources to bear during this fly-by. Ground-based telescopes, Earth-orbiting telescopes, even amateur astronomers will be taking measurements of the planet around the time Juno gets there to provide as complete a picture of the storm as possible.
Scientists are about to get an up-close and personal look at Jupiter’s most famous landmark, the Great Red Spot.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will be directly over the spot shortly after 10 p.m. ET on Monday, July 10, about 5,600 miles above the gas giant’s cloud tops. That’s closer than any spacecraft has been before.
The spot is actually a giant storm that has been blowing on Jupiter for centuries. It’s huge, larger than the Earth in diameter.
“It’s lasted a really long time,” says Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and principal scientist for NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. “No scientists really understand exactly how that storm is created or why it could last so long.”
Not only will Juno’s camera be able to capture detailed images of the spot, but the probe also carries scientific instruments that can provide additional details about the storm. For example, the microwave radiometer can peer through the clouds and see what kinds of atmospheric structures underpin the spot.
“It’s possible that the roots are quite deep,” says Bolton. “So we’ll be able to take a look at that and see what’s underneath the cloud tops.”
Bolton and his colleagues are planning to bring a lot of astronomical resources to bear during this fly-by. Ground-based telescopes, Earth-orbiting telescopes, even amateur astronomers will be taking measurements of the planet around the time Juno gets there to provide as complete a picture of the storm as possible.
