Astronomy Picture of the Week – Jupiter from Voyager
This photo of Jupiter featuring the Great Red Spot was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it flew-by the planet in 1979. The Great Red Spot is a giant hurricane-like storm rotating in the planet’s atmosphere. It is so large that three Earth’s would fit inside. It is still unclear as to how old this storm is, since it was first recorded by astronomers over 300 years ago, suggesting that it could be much older than that. How it managed to remain active for that long still remains a mystery.
Image Credit: NASA, Voyager 1 mission.
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Paul Tomaszewski
Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
3 Comments
retro furniture
Hi, I am trying to find out how large the Great Red Spot is. Does anybody know?
Thank you!
Weber
I am wondering how scientists have been studying this thing for “300″ years. I just wonder how fierce the storm is underneath.
+1
Daniel Amezcua
I am wondering how scientists have been studying this thing for “300” years. I just wonder how fierce the storm is underneath.