NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Ready To Fly Over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft is scheduled to fly over the Jupiter’s Great Red Spot on July 10. The mission is the first close-up view of the greatest storm. Scientists have been observing closely the storm since 1830 and they trust that it’s more than 320 years old. The Great Red Spot is the most mysterious feature of Jupiter.

Juno, which is well-equipped with the latest cloud-penetrating science tools, is scheduled to dive into the planet to gauge the extent of the storm and collect critical data that would help the world understand how the giant storm really works and what makes the monumental storm special from the rest. The findings from Juno’s other missions on Jupiter has a fascinating and the most complex internal structure, vigorous polar aurora, and enormous polar cyclones.

Juno spacecraft will fly almost 9,000 kilometers on top of the Great Red Spot clouds with all its eight gadgets including its remarkable imagery, JunoCam all turned on to capture the most high-defined images and observations as the scientists get the first close-up view of the storm.

Juno has been orbiting around Jupiter for about 53 days and most of the time; the spacecraft is spotted to be too far from the Jupiter planet until one time when it came closer to the huge planet. The spacecraft traveled across the planet from north to south taking about 24,000 kilometers in just one hour.

The Great Red Spot is the oldest and mystifying storm that exists in the solar system. The storm has been in existence even before the humans invented the telescopes. Juno recently clocked one year revolving around Jupiter orbit.

Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011 to carry out several missions that seek to explore Jupiter’s origins, its structure, atmosphere, and its entire environment. The ongoing mission will reveal the crucial data on the storm including what has made it survive for many decades.

Previous studies show that the storm has not been stable throughout. Some years it appeared shrank only to reappear after some time. Recent data indicates that the storm is shrinking and becoming paler.