Juno managed yet again to send back incredible images of Jupiter, and this time, they are close-up images of the planet's most iconic feature which is the Great Red Spot. Citizen scientists quickly went into action to take JunoCam's raw images and processed them for enhanced detail and color.
Latest Flyby
On Monday, July 10, the Juno spacecraft's flyby gave the JunoCam Imager an opportunity to take photos of Jupiter's Great Red Spot as it passed 6,130 miles (9,866 kilometers) directly above the red cloud tops. They images were downlinked from the spacecraft's memory on Tuesday and were already available on JunoCam's website by Wednesday morning.
Everyone is invited to take part in the process by downloading the images and enhancing them in creative ways.
The Great Red Spot And The Juno Mission
As of April 3, the Great Red Spot measures 1.3 times the size of Earth at 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width. Scientists have been monitoring the great storm since 1830 and it has been observed to have shrunk in recent years.
Although people have already seen a large spot on Jupiter through their telescopes as early as the 1600's, it is unclear whether what they were seeing was the Great Red Spot or another spot in Jupiter altogether.
