NASA Just Shot the Closest-Ever Photos of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot” (or G.R.S.) is a giant storm on the gas planet that has possibly existed for at least 350 years. NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew just 5,600 miles above the storm on Monday, snapping new photos that give us a beautiful view of this famous feature.

The distance between Juno and Jupiter is the closest any camera has gotten to the Great Red Spot, giving JunoCam the opportunity to show us Earthlings details we’ve never seen before.

And in case you’re wondering just how big this storm is, here’s a NASA illustration showing its size relative to the United States:

NASA has published unprocessed photos to its JunoCam Image Processing website to allow crowdsourced editing of the photos. You can browse the full collection of these photos on NASA’s website.

(via NASA via Engadget)

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