By: PTI | Washington | Published:July 3, 2017 10:32 am NASAs Juno spacecraft is set to fly directly over Jupiters Great Red Spot on July 10. This true colour mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASAs Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles) (Source: NASA)

NASAs Juno spacecraft is set to fly directly over Jupiters Great Red Spot the gas giants iconic 16,000-kilometer-wide storm. This will be humanitys first up-close and personal view of the gigantic feature a storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years.

Jupiters mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter. This monumental storm has raged on the solar systems biggest planet for centuries, said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

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, said Bolton.

The data collection of the Great Red Spot is part of Junos sixth science flyby over Jupiters mysterious cloud tops. Perijove the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiters center will be on July 10. At the time of perijove, Juno will be about 3,500 kilometers above the planets cloud tops.

Eleven minutes and 33 seconds later, Juno will have covered another 39,771 kilometers and will be directly above the coiling crimson cloud tops of Jupiters Great Red Spot. The spacecraft will pass about 9,000 kilometers above the Giant Red Spot clouds. All eight of the spacecrafts instruments as well as its imager, JunoCam, will be on during the flyby.

On July 4 , Juno will have logged exactly one year in Jupiter orbit. At the time, the spacecraft will have chalked up about 114.5 million kilometres in orbit around the giant planet.

The success of science collection at Jupiter is a testament to the dedication, creativity and technical abilities of the NASA-Juno team, said Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.

Each new orbit brings us closer to the heart of Jupiters radiation belt, but so far the spacecraft has weathered the storm of electrons surrounding Jupiter better than we could have ever imagined, said Nybakken.

Juno was launched in 2011 from the US. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planets cloud tops -as close as about 3,400 kilometres. During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planets origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Early science results from NASAs Juno mission portray the largest planet in our solar system as a turbulent world, with an intriguingly complex interior structure, energetic polar aurora, and huge polar cyclones.

For all the latest Technology News, download Indian Express App

Read this article:

NASA's Juno probe set to fly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot on July 10 - The Indian Express