NASA RELEASES UNPUBLISHED IMAGES OF JUPITER'S HUGE STORM
On Monday, NASA's Juno spacecraft reached 9,000 kilometers of one of Jupiter's most iconic features and began recording some stunning photos. The huge hurricane called the Great Red Spot has been spinning through the planet's clouds for centuries, and yet remains a mystery.
"For generations, people from all over the world marveled at the Great Red Spot," said Scott Bolton, a researcher at Juno Sonda. "Now, finally, let's see how this storm looks so close," he concluded.
To give you an idea, an anticyclone that could swallow Earth, is about 16,350 kilometers in diameter, with winds reaching just under 645 km / h.
The rusting threatening hue of the storm is just one of the mysteries the researchers hope to eventually solve. Jupiter's upper atmosphere consists largely of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water, but it is not entirely clear how these compounds can react to produce red and orange tones.
There are also questions about how the storm keeps its fury, since this storm has been lasting for centuries. By 2016, astronomers noted that the atmosphere above the site was also warmer than the surrounding clouds, an observation that might help explain why the temperature of Jupiter's upper atmosphere was comparable to that of Earth, although it is farther from Sun.
It will take a while longer to get answers to the many questions we have about the Great Red Spot, and Juno has been collecting the largest amount of data from its toolkit to get a better view of the processes boiling below the upper layers of the storm.
Images uploaded here are not processed. "It's always interesting to see these new, raw images of Jupiter as they arrive. But it's even more exciting to take the raw pictures and turn them into something that people can appreciate. That's what I live for, "said Jason Major, a graphic designer.
NASA and other enthusiasts are in the process of processing them to provide an impressive art of the most notorious solar system hurricane in the near future, so these images definitely will not be the last time we'll see Jupiter eye to eye. [ ScienceAlert ]
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