Where is jupiters red spot located

Then, in , NASA launched its Juno spacecraft, a probe designed to get closer to Jupiter than any previous spacecraft had before.

Juno spent five years traveling through deep space, and in , the vehicle inserted itself into a very wide orbit around Jupiter, one that would take Juno close to the planet every 53 days.

But in , Juno did a small redirect. The Great Red Spot is so large that the Juno spacecraft can actually feel the small perturbations in gravity produced by the storm. Ultimately, the gravity signal revealed that the storm did not extend farther than kilometers deep.

Scientists then combined this info with previous microwave measurements taken by Juno back in , which found that the storm extends at least as far as kilometers deep. But they also open up some questions. For one thing, the storm is deep, but not nearly as deep as some of the surrounding jet streams, which extend up to 1, miles, or 3, kilometers, into the planet. But thanks to Juno, scientists have a much more complete picture of the planet and its most famous storm than ever before.

Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Or you might think of the iconic storm, that huge, churning red hurricane twice the size of Earth that's remained a signature of our solar system's largest planet since for more than a century.

This is Jupiter's Great Red Spot and it has captivated humans for generations. Jupiter's Great Red Spot was first observed in by amateur astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, so we know the storm has existed for at least years.

But it could be even older than that. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm that's about twice as wide as Earth, circling the planet in its southern hemisphere. They found signatures of these phenomena below Jupiter's cloud level, beneath which the ammonia and water in the atmosphere are expected to condense. Together, the gravity and microwave measurements hint that Jupiter's upper atmosphere is meaningfully connected to these depths.

Juno has been making long, looping orbits around Jupiter since , and NASA recently extended its mission until Soon, if all goes according to plan, Juno's orbital path will move to take the probe over the planet's north pole — and away from the Great Red Spot, which is farther south. But, according to Parisi, Juno's instruments will get the chance to watch other curiosities, such as Jupiter's cryptic polar cyclones.

They're obviously going to collect data there as well. Both of the new studies were published online today Oct.