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We’re About to Get Our Closest Look at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
universetoday.com/ ^ | 11 Jul , 2017 | Matt Williams

Posted on 07/11/2017 11:35:44 AM PDT by BenLurkin

As part of its sixth orbit of Jupiter’s turbulent cloud tops, Juno passed close to Jupiter’s center (aka. perijove), which took place at 6:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. EDT). Eleven minutes later – at 7:06 p.m. PDT (10:06 p.m. EDT) – the probe flew over the Great Red Spot. In the process, Juno was at a distance of just 9,000 km (5,600 miles) from the anticyclonic storm, which is the closest any spacecraft has ever flown to it.

During the flyby, Juno had all eight of its scientific instruments (as well its imager, the JunoCam) trained directly on the storm. With such an array aimed at this feature, NASA expects to learn more about what has been powering this storm for at least the past three and a half centuries. As Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of Juno at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), said prior to the event in a NASA press release:

“Jupiter’s mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter. This monumental storm has raged on the Solar System’s biggest planet for centuries. Now, Juno and her cloud-penetrating science instruments will dive in to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special.”

This perijove and flyby of the Giant Red Spot also comes just days after Juno celebrated its first anniversary around Jupiter. This took place on July 4th at 7:30 p.m. PDT (10:30 p.m. EDT), at which point, Juno had been in orbit around the Jovian planet for exactly one year. By this time, the spacecraft had covered a distance of 114.5 million km (71 million mi) while orbiting around the planet.

(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: greatredspot; juno; junoprobe; jupiter; littleredspot; redspot; spot

1 posted on 07/11/2017 11:35:45 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Too bad it doesn’t have a better camera for visual images.


2 posted on 07/11/2017 11:39:26 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: BenLurkin


She's not Aunt Maxine, she's Aunt Esther!!!
3 posted on 07/11/2017 11:45:31 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Whoops, wrong thread. Sorry!


4 posted on 07/11/2017 11:46:29 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: BenLurkin
Our Closest Look at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

I'm no dermatologist.

5 posted on 07/11/2017 11:48:30 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: BenLurkin

6 posted on 07/11/2017 11:53:12 AM PDT by Malcolm Reynolds
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To: BenLurkin

Maybe Jupiter needs to borrow some Prep H from Uranus?


7 posted on 07/11/2017 11:54:13 AM PDT by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our one and only true hope.)
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To: BenLurkin

OK...of you’re not going to do anything then we are free to glassify Pyong Yang.


8 posted on 07/11/2017 11:59:16 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: humblegunner
I'm no dermatologist.

I LOL'd...

9 posted on 07/11/2017 12:04:17 PM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: BenLurkin

Not the red spot. That’s overly TMI. Geez, an invasion of privacy.


10 posted on 07/11/2017 12:11:54 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: BenLurkin
The red spot/storm is slightly larger than earth.


11 posted on 07/11/2017 12:14:45 PM PDT by xp38
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To: BenLurkin

Jupiter can’t wear wear white slacks.


12 posted on 07/11/2017 12:23:11 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: tumblindice

Oh my!


13 posted on 07/11/2017 12:33:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

My my. We all about to get real personal with Mr Jupiter. I do hope he don’t get all gravity over it.


14 posted on 07/11/2017 12:44:03 PM PDT by lurk
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