Juno spacecraft to fly directly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot next week

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After a journey of six years, NASA's Juno spacecraft is expected to fly directly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot on July 10, humanity's first up-close and personal view of the gigantic feature on its surface, a storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years.

"July 10, NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly directly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot, giving humanity its 1st up-close view," Juno team tweeted this week.

Just days after celebrating its first anniversary in Jupiter orbit on July 4, the spacecraft will fly directly over Jupiter's iconic 16,000-kilometer-wide storm, said NASA.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. /VCG Photo

According to NASA, data collection of the Great Red Spot is part of Juno's sixth science flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops. Perijove, the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter's center, will be on Monday, July 10, at 6:55 p.m. PDT (July 11, 0155 GMT). At the time of perijove, Juno will be about 3,500 kilometers above the planet's cloud tops.

"Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

"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."

(Source: Xinhua)