New Delhi:
A stunning picture of planet Jupiter has yet again been captured by Juno Cam, a NASA space probe. The image reveals a magnificent little red spot on marbled surface of the planet that observers have tracked for the last 23 years. The Little Red spot covers the northern latitude of the planet. This red spot was the giant storm also known as NN-LRS-1 and it shows very little colour. The Little Red Spot is a giant storm with winds circling at up to 384mph (617km/h)
The image was captured by the JunoCam imager on Nasa’s Juno spacecraft on December 11, 2016, as the spacecraft performed a close flyby of the gas planet, at 8:47 am PST at an altitude of 10, 300 miles (16, 600 km) above Jupiter’s cloud top. The image was posted by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstaedt and John Rogers.
“This storm is the third largest anticyclonic reddish oval on the planet, which Earth-based observers have tracked for the last 23 years. An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon with large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure. They rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.” said NASA about the storm.
Astronomers have long been fascinated by one of the most volatile weather systems in the universe, which includes storms and supersonic wind jets, alongside the great red spot, that is also believed to be the biggest in the solar system.
