NASA ’s Juno spacecraft completedperijove 7yesterday , fly nearest to Jupiter in its 53 - day orbit and collecting intimate scientific discipline a mere 5600 miles above the petrol giant ’s swarm pinnacle . This flyby take the ballistic capsule directly over Jupiter ’s Great Red Spot , a centuries - previous , 10,000 - mil - encompassing scarlet maelstrom that has long perplexed scientists . Among the storm ’s unknowns are its deepness and perpetuate forces . The first raw images of the Earth - sized hurricane werereleased today .
" This is a violent storm that we ’ve been tracking ever since the dawn of modern astronomy , and we ’re the first generation to get this exquisite level of detail,“Leigh Fletcher , a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester , tells Mental Floss . He says that from the ballistic capsule ’s position , the Great Red Spot would have stretch from horizon to horizon .
Juno has thus far given us astartling newfangled imaginativeness of Jupiter — one of teeming teals and whirl storm — and get scientists to sharpen their pencil and rewrite much of what they sleep with about the solar system ’s big major planet . Today ’s initial trope information promise no less a rotation in the scientific understanding of Jupiter .
What does the Great Red Spot look like from an expert ’s perspective ? " I see a swirl of red cloud material as the whirlpool spiral anti - clockwise , a deep - red kernel that coincide with the tranquil centre of the powerful winds , and clusters of small - scale swarm that abide above the cherry depths , " says Fletcher . " There ’s even grounds of wave in the spiral arms in these breathtaking figure of speech . It ’s an incredible level of detail in an image that ’s set to become instantly iconic . "
Today ’s image release is just a penchant of what is to come , of course . The spacecraft had all nine of its science legal document active during the straits , and data are being pillory back to the Deep Space connection at the speed of Light Within . " For me , the real scientific discipline always starts with spectrographic analysis , " says Fletcher , " assessing the fingerprints of the gaseous composition and aerosols that are present within the storm . " Juno ’s skill payload allows scientists to peer hundreds of mile beneath Jupiter ’s clouds . " For years we ’ve tried to realize how inscrutable [ the Great Red Spot ] perforate into the atmosphere , and what might be sustaining it . By poke into below the cloud with the microwave oven instrument , we might just find the answers we ’ve been expect for . "
The Juno space vehicle found on August 5 , 2011 and attain orbit around Jupiteron July 4 , 2016 . The next flyby of Jupiter will take place on September 1 . It will mark the space vehicle ’s eighth orbit and seventh science flyby .
need to see more amazing images ? Head over to NASA’sJunoCam .
