Astronomy Picture of the Day Search Results for " "great red spot" Jupiter"

APOD: 2024 January 19 - Jupiter over 2 Hours and 30 Minutes
Explanation: Jupiter, our Solar System's ruling gas giant, is also the fastest spinning planet, rotating once in less than 10 hours. The gas giant doesn't rotate like a solid body though. A day on Jupiter is about 9 hours and 56 minutes long at the poles, decreasing to 9 hours and 50 minutes near the equator. The giant planet's fast rotation creates strong jet streams, separating its clouds into planet girdling bands of dark belts and bright zones. You can easily follow Jupiter's rapid rotation in this sharp sequence of images from the night of January 15, all taken with a camera and small telescope outside of Paris, France. Located just south of the equator, the giant planet's giant storm system, also known as the Great Red Spot, can be seen moving left to right with the planet's rotation. From lower left to upper right, the sequence spans about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

APOD: 2023 November 24 - Stereo Jupiter near Opposition
Explanation: Jupiter looks sharp in these two rooftop telescope images. Both were captured on November 17 from Singapore, planet Earth, about two weeks after Jupiter's 2023 opposition. Climbing high in midnight skies the giant planet was a mere 33.4 light-minutes from Singapore. That's about 4 astronomical units away. Jupiter's planet girdling dark belts and light zones are visible in remarkable detail, along with the giant world's whitish oval vortices. Its signature Great Red Spot is still prominent in the south. Jupiter rotates rapidly on its axis once every 10 hours. So, based on video frames taken only 15 minutes apart, these images form a stereo pair. Look at the center of the pair and cross your eyes until the separate images come together to see the Solar System's ruling gas giant in 3D.

APOD: 2023 June 13 – Moons Across Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter's moons circle Jupiter. The featured video depicts Europa and Io, two of Jupiter's largest moons, crossing in front of the grand planet's Great Red Spot, the largest known storm system in our Solar System. The video was composed from images taken by the robotic Cassini spacecraft as it passed Jupiter in 2000, on its way to Saturn. The two moons visible are volcanic Io, in the distance, and icy Europa. In the time-lapse video, Europa appears to overtake Io, which is odd because Io is closer to Jupiter and moves faster. The explanation is that the motion of the fast Cassini spacecraft changes the camera location significantly during imaging. Jupiter is currently being visited by NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft, while ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), launched in April, is enroute.

APOD: 2022 October 25 - Jupiter Rotates as Moons Orbit
Explanation: Jupiter and its moons move like our Sun and its planets. Similarly, Jupiter spins while its moons circle around. Jupiter’s rotation can be observed by tracking circulating dark belts and light zones. The Great Red Spot, the largest storm known, rotates to become visible after about 15 seconds in the 48-second time lapse video. The video is a compilation of shorts taken over several nights last month and combined into a digital recreation of how 24-continuous hours would appear. Jupiter's brightest moons always orbit in the plane of the planet's rotation, even as Earth’s spin makes the whole system appear to tilt. The moons Europa, Ganymede, and Io are all visible, with Europa's shadow appearing as the icy Galilean moon crosses Jupiter's disk. Jupiter remains near opposition this month, meaning that it is unusually bright, near to its closest to the Earth, and visible nearly all night long.

APOD: 2022 October 7 - In Ganymede's Shadow
Explanation: At opposition, opposite the Sun in Earth's sky, late last month Jupiter is also approaching perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its elliptical orbit, early next year. That makes Jupiter exceptionally close to our fair planet, currently resulting in excellent views of the Solar System's ruling gas giant. On September 27, this sharp image of Jupiter was recorded with a small telescope from a backyard in Florence, Arizona. The stacked video frames reveal the massive world bounded by planet girdling winds. Dark belts and light zones span the gas giant, along with rotating oval storms and its signature Great Red Spot. Galilean moon Ganymede is below and right in the frame. The Solar System's largest moon and its shadow are in transit across the southern Jovian cloud tops.

APOD: 2022 August 30 - Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
Explanation: This new view of Jupiter is illuminating. High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) reveal, for example, previously unknown differences between high-floating bright clouds -- including the Great Red Spot -- and low-lying dark clouds. Also clearly visible in the featured Webb image are Jupiter's dust ring, bright auroras at the poles, and Jupiter's moons Amalthea and Adrastea. Large volcanic moon Io's magnetic funneling of charged particles onto Jupiter is also visible in the southern aurora. Some objects are so bright that light noticeably diffracts around Webb's optics creating streaks. Webb, which orbits the Sun near the Earth, has a mirror over six meters across making it the largest astronomical telescope ever launched -- with over six times more light-collecting area than Hubble.

APOD: 2022 July 20 - Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
Explanation: Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, however, confirmed the hypothesis that this ring was created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Metis, for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit. The featured image of Jupiter in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope shows not only Jupiter and its clouds, but this ring as well. Also visible is Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) -- in comparatively light color on the right, Jupiter's large moon Europa -- in the center of diffraction spikes on the left, and Europa's shadow -- next to the GRS. Several features in the image are not yet well understood, including the seemingly separated cloud layer on Jupiter's right limb.

APOD: 2022 July 17 - Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1
Explanation: What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot -- a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini's likely notation of it 357 years ago. It is not yet known why this Great Spot is red. The spot toward the lower left is one of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa. Images from Voyager in 1979 bolster the modern hypothesis that Europa has an underground ocean and is therefore a good place to look for extraterrestrial life. But what about the dark spot on the upper right? That is a shadow of another of Jupiter's large moons: Io. Voyager 1 discovered Io to be so volcanic that no impact craters could be found. Sixteen frames from Voyager 1's flyby of Jupiter in 1979 were recently reprocessed and merged to create the featured image. Forty-five years ago this September, Voyager 1 launched from Earth and started one of the greatest explorations of the Solar System ever.

APOD: 2022 January 9 - Hubbles Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot
Explanation: What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Jupiter is home to one of the largest and longest lasting storm systems known, the Great Red Spot (GRS), visible to the left. The GRS is so large it could swallow Earth, although it has been shrinking. Comparison with historical notes indicate that the storm spans only about one third of the exposed surface area it had 150 years ago. NASA's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program has been monitoring the storm more recently using the Hubble Space Telescope. The featured Hubble OPAL image shows Jupiter as it appeared in 2016, processed in a way that makes red hues appear quite vibrant. Modern GRS data indicate that the storm continues to constrict its surface area, but is also becoming slightly taller, vertically. No one knows the future of the GRS, including the possibility that if the shrinking trend continues, the GRS might one day even do what smaller spots on Jupiter have done -- disappear completely.

APOD: 2021 December 29 - Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter
Explanation: What and where are these large ovals? They are rotating storm clouds on Jupiter imaged last month by NASA's Juno spacecraft. In general, higher clouds are lighter in color, and the lightest clouds visible are the relatively small clouds that dot the lower oval. At 50 kilometers across, however, even these light clouds are not small. They are so high up that they cast shadows on the swirling oval below. The featured image has been processed to enhance color and contrast. Large ovals are usually regions of high pressure that span over 1000 kilometers and can last for years. The largest oval on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot (not pictured), which has lasted for at least hundreds of years. Studying cloud dynamics on Jupiter with Juno images enables a better understanding of dangerous typhoons and hurricanes on Earth.

APOD: 2021 October 26 - Jupiter Rotates
Explanation: Observe the graceful twirl of our Solar System's largest planet. Many interesting features of Jupiter's enigmatic atmosphere, including dark belts and light zones, can be followed in detail. A careful inspection will reveal that different cloud layers rotate at slightly different speeds. The famous Great Red Spot is not visible at first -- but soon rotates into view. Other smaller storm systems occasionally appear. As large as Jupiter is, it rotates in only 10 hours. Our small Earth, by comparison, takes 24 hours to complete a spin cycle. The featured high-resolution time-lapse video was captured over five nights earlier this month by a mid-sized telescope on an apartment balcony in Paris, France. Since hydrogen and helium gas are colorless, and those elements compose most of Jupiter's expansive atmosphere, what trace elements create the observed colors of Jupiter's clouds remains a topic of research.

APOD: 2020 December 23 - Jupiter Meets Saturn: A Red Spotted Great Conjunction
Explanation: It was time for their close-up. Two days ago Jupiter and Saturn passed a tenth of a degree from each other in what is known a Great Conjunction. Although the two planets pass each other on the sky every 20 years, this was the closest pass in nearly four centuries. Taken early in day of the Great Conjunction, the featured multiple-exposure combination captures not only both giant planets in a single frame, but also Jupiter's four largest moons (left to right) Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa -- and Saturn's largest moon Titan. If you look very closely, the clear Chilescope image even captures Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The now-separating planets can still be seen remarkably close -- within about a degree -- as they set just after the Sun, toward the west, each night for the remainder of the year.

APOD: 2020 October 19 - A Flight over Jupiter Near the Great Red Spot
Explanation: Are you willing to wait to see the largest and oldest known storm system in the Solar System? In the featured video, Jupiter's Great Red Spot finally makes its appearance 2 minutes and 12 seconds into the 5-minute video. Before it arrives, you may find it pleasing to enjoy the continually changing view of the seemingly serene clouds of Jupiter, possibly with your lights low and sound up. The 41 frames that compose the video were captured in June as the robotic Juno spacecraft was making a close pass over our Solar System's largest planet. The time-lapse sequence actually occurred over four hours. Since arriving at Jupiter in 2016, Juno's numerous discoveries have included unexpectedly deep atmospheric jet streams, the most powerful auroras ever recorded, and water-bearing clouds bunched near Jupiter's equator.

APOD: 2020 September 10 - Jupiter's Swimming Storm
Explanation: A bright storm head with a long turbulent wake swims across Jupiter in these sharp telescopic images of the Solar System's ruling gas giant. Captured on August 26, 28, and September 1 (left to right) the storm approximately doubles in length during that period. Stretching along the jetstream of the planet's North Temperate Belt it travels eastward in successive frames, passing the Great Red Spot and whitish Oval BA, famous storms in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. Galilean moons Callisto and Io are caught in the middle frame. In fact, telescopic skygazers following Jupiter in planet Earth's night have reported dramatic fast moving storm outbreaks over the past few weeks in Jupiter's North Temperate Belt.

APOD: 2020 July 29 - The Giants of Summer
Explanation: As Comet NEOWISE sweeps through northern summer skies, Jupiter and Saturn are shining brightly, near opposition. With Jupiter opposite the Sun on July 14 and Saturn on July 21, the giant planets are still near their closest to planet Earth in 2020. Sharing the constellation Sagittarius they are up all night, and offer their best and brightest views at the telescope. Both captured on July 22 from a balcony in Paris these two sharp telescopic images don't disappoint, showing off what the giant planets are famous for, Saturn's bright rings and Jupiter's Great Red Spot. These giants of the Solar System are worth following during 2020. On December 21, skygazers can watch the once-in-20-year great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

APOD: 2020 June 28 - Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1
Explanation: What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot -- a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini's likely notation of it 355 years ago. It is not yet known why this Great Spot is red. The spot toward the lower left is one of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa. Images from Voyager in 1979 bolster the modern hypothesis that Europa has an underground ocean and is therefore a good place to look for extraterrestrial life. But what about the dark spot on the upper right? That is a shadow of another of Jupiter's large moons: Io. Voyager 1 discovered Io to be so volcanic that no impact craters could be found. Sixteen frames from Voyager 1's flyby of Jupiter in 1979 were recently reprocessed and merged to create the featured image. About 43 years ago, Voyager 1 launched from Earth and started one of the greatest explorations of the Solar System ever.

APOD: 2019 May 8 - Jupiter Marble from Juno
Explanation: What does Jupiter look like up close? Most images of Jupiter are taken from far away, either from Earth or from a great enough distance that nearly half the planet is visible. This shot, though, was composed from images taken relatively close in, where less than half of the planet was visible. From here, Jupiter still appears spherical but perspective distortion now makes it look more like a marble. Visible on Jupiter's cloud tops are a prominent dark horizontal belt containing a white oval cloud, and a white zone cloud, both of which circle the planet. The Great Red Spot looms on the upper right. The featured image was taken by the robotic Juno spacecraft in February during its 17th close pass of our Solar System's largest planet. Juno's mission, now extended into 2021, is to study Jupiter in new ways. Juno's data has already enabled discoveries that include Jupiter's magnetic field being surprisingly lumpy, and that some of Jupiter's cloud systems run about 3,000 kilometers into the planet.

APOD: 2018 October 16 - Jupiter in Ultraviolet from Hubble
Explanation: Jupiter looks a bit different in ultraviolet light. To better interpret Jupiter's cloud motions and to help NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft understand the planetary context of the small fields that it sees, the Hubble Space Telescope is being directed to regularly image the entire Jovian giant. The colors of Jupiter being monitored go beyond the normal human visual range to include both ultraviolet and (not pictured) infrared light. Featured from 2017, Jupiter appears different in near ultraviolet light, partly because the amount of sunlight reflected back is distinct, giving differing cloud heights and latitudes discrepant brightnesses. In the near UV, Jupiter's poles appear relatively dark, as does its Great Red Spot and a smaller (optically) white oval to the right. The String of Pearl storms farther to the right, however, are brightest in near ultraviolet, and so here appear (false-color) pink. Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede appears on the upper left. Juno continues on its looping 53-day orbits around Jupiter, while Earth-orbiting Hubble is now recovering from the loss of a stabilizing gyroscope.

APOD: 2018 May 21 - Jupiter Cloud Animation from Juno
Explanation: How do Jupiter's clouds move? To help find out, images taken with NASA's Juno spacecraft during its last pass near Jupiter have been analyzed and digitally extrapolated into a time-lapse video. The eight-second time-lapse video, digitally extrapolated between two images taken only nine minutes apart, estimates how Jupiter's clouds move over 29 hours. Abstractly, the result appears something like a psychedelic paisley dream. Scientifically, however, the computer animation shows that circular storms tend to swirl, while bands and zones appear to flow. This overall motion is not surprising and has been seen on time-lapse videos of Jupiter before, although never in this detail. The featured region spans about four times the area of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Results from Juno are showing, unexpectedly, that Jupiter's weather phenomena can extend deep below its cloud tops.

APOD: 2018 April 25 - Hubble's Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot
Explanation: What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Jupiter is home to one of the largest and longest lasting storm systems known, the Great Red Spot (GRS), visible to the left. The GRS is so large it could swallow Earth, although it has been shrinking. Comparison with historical notes indicate that the storm spans only about one third of the surface area it had 150 years ago. NASA's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program has been monitoring the storm more recently using the Hubble Space Telescope. The featured Hubble OPAL image shows Jupiter as it appeared in 2016, processed in a way that makes red hues appear quite vibrant. Modern GRS data indicate that the storm continues to constrict its surface area, but is also becoming slightly taller, vertically. No one knows the future of the GRS, including the possibility that if the shrinking trend continues, the GRS might one day even do what smaller spots on Jupiter have done -- disappear completely.

APOD: 2018 February 21 - Jupiter in Infrared from Hubble
Explanation: Jupiter looks a bit different in infrared light. To better understand Jupiter's cloud motions and to help NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft understand the planetary context of the small fields that it sees, the Hubble Space Telescope is being directed to regularly image the entire Jovian giant. The colors of Jupiter being monitored go beyond the normal human visual range to include both ultraviolet and infrared light. Featured here in 2016, three bands of near-infrared light have been digitally reassigned into a mapped color image. Jupiter appears different in infrared partly because the amount of sunlight reflected back is distinct, giving differing cloud heights and latitudes discrepant brightnesses. Nevertheless, many familiar features on Jupiter remain, including the light zones and dark belts that circle the planet near the equator, the Great Red Spot on the lower left, and the string-of-pearls storm systems south of the Great Red Spot. The poles glow because high altitude haze there is energized by charged particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere. Juno has now completed 10 of 12 planned science orbits of Jupiter and continues to record data that are helping humanity to understand not only Jupiter's weather but what lies beneath Jupiter's thick clouds.

APOD: 2017 December 14 - Jupiter Diving
Explanation: Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the microwave radiometer on board the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft. Your view will start about 3,000 kilometers above the southern Jovian cloud tops, but you can track your progress on the display at the left. As altitude decreases, temperature increases while you dive deeper at the location of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. In fact, Juno data indicates the Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm system, penetrates some 300 kilometers into the giant planet's atmosphere. For comparison, the deepest point for planet Earth's oceans is just under 11 kilometers down. Don't panic though, you'll fly back out again.

APOD: 2017 September 5 - Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1
Explanation: What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot -- a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini's likely notation of it 352 years ago. It is not yet known why this Great Spot is red. The spot toward the lower left is one of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa. Images from Voyager in 1979 bolster the modern hypothesis that Europa has an underground ocean and is therefore a good place to look for extraterrestrial life. But what about the dark spot on the upper right? That is a shadow of another of Jupiter's large moons: Io. Voyager 1 discovered Io to be so volcanic that no impact craters could be found. Sixteen frames from Voyager 1's flyby of Jupiter in 1979 were recently reprocessed and merged to create the featured image. Forty years ago today, Voyager 1 launched from Earth and started one of the greatest explorations of the Solar System ever.

APOD: 2017 August 4 - North North Temperate Zone Little Red Spot
Explanation: On July 11, the Juno spacecraft once again swung near the turbulent Jovian cloud tops. On its seventh orbital closest approach this perijove passage brought Juno within 3,500 kilometers of the Solar System's largest planetary atmosphere. Near perijove the rotating JunoCam was able to record this stunning, clear view of one of Jupiter's signature vortices. About 8,000 kilometers in diameter, the anticyclonic storm system was spotted in Jupiter's North North Temperate Zone in the 1990s. That makes it about half the size of an older and better known Jovian anticyclone, the Great Red Spot, but only a little smaller than planet Earth. At times taking on reddish hues, the enormous storm system is fondly known as a North North Temperate Zone Little Red Spot.

APOD: 2017 July 15 - Close up of the Great Red Spot
Explanation: On July 11, the Juno spacecraft once again swung near to Jupiter's turbulent cloud tops in its looping 53 day orbit around the Solar System's ruling gas giant. About 11 minutes after perijove 7, its closest approach on this orbit, it passed directly above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. During the much anticipated fly over, it captured this close-up image data from a distance of less than 10,000 kilometers. The raw JunoCam data was subsequently processed by citizen scientists. Very long-lived but found to be shrinking, the Solar System's largest storm system was measure to be 16,350 kilometers wide on April 15. That's about 1.3 times the diameter of planet Earth.

APOD: 2017 May 23 - Approaching Jupiter
Explanation: What would it look like to approach Jupiter? To help answer this, a team of 91 amateur astrophotographers took over 1,000 pictures of Jupiter from the Earth with the resulting images aligned and digitally merged into the featured time-lapse video. Image taking began in 2014 December and lasted just over three months. The resulting fictitious approach sequence has similarities to what was seen by NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft as it first approached the Jovian world last July. The video begins with Jupiter appearing as a small orb near the image center. As Jupiter nears from below, the planet looms ever larger while the rotation of its cloud bands becomes apparent. Jupiter's shrinking Great Red Spot rotates into view twice, at times showing unusual activity. Many white ovals are visible moving around the giant planet. The video ends as the imaginary spacecraft passes over Jupiter's North Pole.

APOD: 2017 February 28 - A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from Juno
Explanation: This storm cloud on Jupiter is almost as large as the Earth. Known as a white oval, the swirling cloud is a high pressure system equivalent to an Earthly anticyclone. The cloud is one of a "string of pearls" ovals south of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. Possibly, the Great Red Spot is just a really large white oval that turned red. Surrounding clouds show interesting turbulence as they flow around and past the oval. The featured image was captured on February 2 as NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno made a new pass just above the cloud tops of the Jovian world. Over the next few years, Juno will continue to orbit and probe Jupiter, determine atmospheric water abundance, and attempt to determine if Jupiter has a solid surface beneath its thick clouds.

APOD: 2016 December 17 - Southern Jupiter from Perijove 3
Explanation: Southern Jupiter looms some 37,000 kilometers away in this JunoCam image from December 11. The image data was captured near Juno's third perijove or closest approach to Jupiter, the spacecraft still in its 53 day long looping orbit. With the south polar region on the left, the large whitish oval toward the right is massive, counterclockwise rotating storm system. Smaller than the more famous Great Red Spot, the oval storm is only about half the diameter of planet Earth, one of a string of white ovals currently in the southern hemisphere of the Solar System's, ruling gas giant.

APOD: 2016 July 11 - Aurorae on Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter has aurorae. Like Earth, the magnetic field of the gas giant funnels charged particles released from the Sun onto the poles. As these particles strike the atmosphere, electrons are temporarily knocked away from existing gas molecules. Electric force attracts these electrons back. As the electrons recombine to remake neutral molecules, auroral light is emitted. In the featured recently released composite image by the Hubble Space Telescope taken in ultraviolet light, the aurorae appear as annular sheets around the pole. Unlike Earth's aurorae, Jupiter's aurorae include several bright streaks and dots. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is visible on the lower right. Recent aurorae on Jupiter have been particularly strong -- a fortunate coincidence with the arrival of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter last week. Juno was able to monitor the Solar Wind as it approached Jupiter, enabling a better understanding of aurorae in general, including on Earth.

APOD: 2016 June 26 - Jupiter's Clouds from New Horizons
Explanation: The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of Jupiter on its way out to Pluto. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible through even modest sized telescopes. The featured image, horizontally compressed, was taken in 2007 near Jupiter's terminator and shows the Jovian giant's wide diversity of cloud patterns. On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiter's South Pole. Here turbulent whirlpools and swirls are seen in a dark region, dubbed a belt, that rings the planet. Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure, complete with complex wave patterns. The energy that drives these waves surely comes from below. New Horizons is the fastest space probe ever launched, has successfully complete its main flyby of Pluto in 2015, and is now heading further out and on track to flyby Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 in 2019. In the near term, many space enthusiasts excitedly await Juno's arrival at Jupiter next Monday.

APOD: 2016 June 2 - Three Planets from Pic du Midi
Explanation: Seen any planets lately? All three planets now shining brightly in the night sky are imaged in these panels, captured last week with the 1 meter telescope at Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. Near opposition and closest to Earth on May 30, Mars is presently offering the best ground-based photo-ops in the last decade. The sharp image finds clouds above the Red Planet's north pole (top) and towering volcanos near its right limb. Saturn reaches its own opposition tonight, its bright rings and gaps clearly revealed in the telescopic portrait. Jupiter is currently highest during the evening twilight and shows off its planet-girdling cloud bands and Great Red Spot in this scene. Of course close-up images of the ruling gas giant will follow the July arrival of the solar-powered Juno spacecraft and JunoCam.

APOD: 2015 October 24 - Jupiter in 2015
Explanation: Two remarkable global maps of Jupiter's banded cloud tops can be compared by just sliding your cursor over this sharp projection (or follow this link) of image data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Both captured on January 19, during back-to-back 10 hour rotations of the ruling gas giant, the all-planet projections represent the first in a series of planned annual portraits by the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program. Comparing the two highlights cloud movements and measures wind speeds in the planet's dynamic atmosphere. In fact, the Great Red Spot, the famous long-lived swirling storm boasting 300 mile per hour winds, is seen sporting a rotating, twisting filament. The images confirm that Great Red Spot is still shrinking, though still larger than planet Earth. Posing next to it (lower right) is Oval BA, also known as Red Spot Junior.

APOD: 2015 May 15 - Jupiter, Ganymede, Great Red Spot
Explanation: In this sharp snapshot, the Solar System's largest moon Ganymede poses next to Jupiter, the largest planet. Captured on March 10 with a small telescope from our fair planet Earth, the scene also includes Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm. In fact, Ganymede is about 5,260 kilometers in diameter. That beats out all three of its other fellow Galilean satellites, along with Saturn's Moon Titan at 5,150 kilometers and Earth's own Moon at 3,480 kilometers. Though its been shrinking lately, the Great Red Spot's diameter is still around 16,500 kilometers. Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant, is about 143,000 kilometers in diameter at its equator. That's nearly 10 percent the diameter of the Sun.

APOD: 2014 May 18 - Jupiters Great Red Spot from Voyager 1
Explanation: What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Recorded as shrinking since the 1930s, the rate of the Great Red Spot's size appears to have accelerated just in the past few years. A hurricane larger than Earth, the Great Red Spot has been raging at least as long as telescopes could see it. Like most astronomical phenomena, the Great Red Spot was neither predicted nor immediately understood after its discovery. Although small eddies that feed into the storm system seem to play a role, a more full understanding of the gigantic storm cloud remains a topic of continued research, and may result in a better understanding of weather here on Earth. The above image is a digital enhancement of an image of Jupiter taken in 1979 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it zoomed by the Solar System's largest planet. NASA's Juno spacecraft is currently heading toward Jupiter and will arrive in 2016.

APOD: 2014 May 17 - Hubble's Jupiter and Shrinking Great Red Spot
Explanation: Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. It's also known for a giant swirling storm system, the Great Red Spot, featured in this sharp Hubble image from April 21. Nestled between Jupiter-girdling cloud bands, the Great Red Spot itself could still easily swallow Earth, but lately it has been shrinking. The most recent Hubble observations measure the spot to be about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) across. That's the smallest ever measured by Hubble and particularly dramatic when compared to 14,500 miles measured by the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys in 1979, and historic telescopic observations from the 1800s indicating a width of about 25,500 miles on its long axis. Current indications are that the rate of shrinking is increasing for the long-lived Great Red Spot.

APOD: 2013 November 2 - Jupiter's Triple Shadow Transit
Explanation: This webcam and telescope image of banded gas giant Jupiter shows the transit of three shadows cast by Jupiter's moons in progress, captured in Belgian skies on October 12 at 0528 UT. Such a three shadow transit is a relatively rare event, even for a large planet with many moons. Visible in the frame are the three Galilean moons responsible, Callisto at the far left edge, Io closest to Jupiter's disk, and Europa below and just left of Io. Of their shadows on the sunlit Jovian cloud tops, Callisto casts the most elongated one near the planet's south polar region at the bottom. Io's shadow is above and right of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Of course viewed from Jupiter's perspective, these shadow crossings could be seen as solar eclipses, analogous to the Moon's shadow crossing the sunlit face of planet Earth.

APOD: 2013 February 15 - Shadows Across Jupiter
Explanation: Two dark shadows loom across the banded and mottled cloud tops of Jupiter in this sharp telescopic view. In fact, captured on January 3rd, about a month after the ruling gas giant appeared at opposition in planet Earth's sky, the scene includes the shadow casters. Visible in remarkable detail at the left are the large Galilean moons Ganymede (top) and Io. With the two moon shadows still in transit, Jupiter's rapid rotation has almost carried its famous Great Red Spot (GRS) around the planet's limb from the right. The pale GRS was preceded by the smaller but similar hued Oval BA, dubbed Red Spot Jr., near top center. North is down in the inverted image.

APOD: 2012 November 28 - Jupiter and Io
Explanation: On December 3 (UT), Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, will be at opposition, opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky, shining brightly and rising as the Sun sets. That configuration results in Jupiter's almost annual closest approach to planet Earth. So, near opposition the gas giant offers earthbound telescopes stunning views of its stormy, banded atmosphere and large Galilean moons. For example, this sharp series was recorded on the night of November 16/17 from the island of Sardinia near Dolianova, Italy. North is up in the images that show off Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot, and planet girdling dark belts and light zones. Also seen in transit is Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, its round, dark shadow tracking across the Jovian cloud tops as the sequence progresses left to right.

APOD: 2011 December 6 - Jupiter Rotation Movie from Pic du Midi
Explanation: Observe the graceful twirl of the Solar System's largest planet. Many interesting features of Jupiter's enigmatic atmosphere, including dark bands and light zones, can be followed in detail. A careful inspection will reveal that central clouds rotate slightly faster than clouds toward the poles. The famous Great Red Spot is visible at first but soon rotates out of view, only to return near the movie's end. Other smaller storm systems ocassionally appear. As large as Jupiter is, it rotates in only 10 hours. Our small Earth, by comparison, takes 24 hours to complete a spin cycle. The above high-resolution time-lapse movie was captured over the past year by the one-meter Telescope at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. Since hydrogen and helium gas are colorless, and those elements compose most of Jupiter's expansive atmosphere, what trace elements create the observed colors of Jupiter's clouds remains unknown.

APOD: 2011 October 23 - Jupiter's Clouds from New Horizons
Explanation: The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of Jupiter on its way out to Pluto. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible through even modest sized telescopes. The above image, horizontally compressed, was taken in 2007 near Jupiter's terminator and shows the Jovian giant's wide diversity of cloud patterns. On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiter's South Pole. Here turbulent whirlpools and swirls are seen in a dark region, dubbed a belt, that rings the planet. Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure, complete with complex wave patterns. The energy that drives these waves surely comes from below. New Horizons is the fastest space probe ever launched, has now passed the orbits of Saturn and Uranus and is on track to reach Pluto in 2015.

APOD: 2011 May 2 - Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Voyager 1
Explanation: It is a hurricane twice the size of the Earth. It has been raging at least as long as telescopes could see it, and shows no signs of slowing. It is Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the largest swirling storm system in the Solar System. Like most astronomical phenomena, the Great Red Spot was neither predicted nor immediately understood after its discovery. Still today, details of how and why the Great Red Spot changes its shape, size, and color remain mysterious. A better understanding of the weather on Jupiter may help contribute to the better understanding of weather here on Earth. The above image is a recently completed digital enhancement of an image of Jupiter taken in 1979 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it zoomed by the Solar System's largest planet. At about 117 AU from Earth, Voyager 1 is currently the most distant human made object in the universe and expected to leave the entire solar heliosheath any time now.

APOD: 2009 January 6 - Jupiter Eclipsing Ganymede
Explanation: How hazy is Jupiter's upper atmosphere? To help find out, astronomers deployed the Hubble Space Telescope to watch Jupiter eclipse its moon Ganymede. Although Ganymede circles Jupiter once a week, a particularly useful occultation occurs more rarely. Such an occultation was captured in great visual detail in April 2007. When near Jupiter's limb, Ganymede reflects sunlight though Jupiter's upper atmosphere, allowing astronomers to search for haze by noting a slight dimming at different colors. One result of this investigation was the above spectacular image, where bands of clouds that circle Jupiter are clearly visible, as well as magnificent swirling storm systems such as the Great Red Spot. Ganymede, at the image bottom, also shows noticeable detail on its dark icy surface. Since Jupiter and Ganymede are so bright, many eclipses can be seen right here on Earth with a small telescope.

APOD: 2008 July 24 - When Storms Collide
Explanation: These detailed Hubble Space Telescope close-ups feature Jupiter's ancient swirling storm system known as the Great Red Spot. They also follow the progress of two newer storm systems that have grown to take on a similar reddish hue: the smaller "Red Spot Jr." (bottom), and smaller still, a "baby red spot". Red Spot Jr. was seen to form in 2006, while the smaller spot was just identified earlier this year. For scale, the Great Red Spot has almost twice the diameter of planet Earth. Moving horizontally from left to right past the Great Red Spot, Red Spot Jr. clearly went below the larger storm, but the smaller spot was pulled in. Emerging on the right, the baby spot's stretched and now paler shape is indicated by the arrow in the frame from July 8. It is expected that the baby red spot will be pulled back and merge, becoming part of the giant storm system.

APOD: 2008 May 23 - Jupiter's Three Red Spots
Explanation: For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The spots extend above the surrounding clouds and their red color may be due to deeper material dredged up by the storms and exposed to ultraviolet light, but the exact chemical process is still unknown. For scale, the Great Red Spot has almost twice the diameter of planet Earth, making both new spots less than one Earth-diameter across. The newest red spot is on the far left (west), along the same band of clouds as the Great Red Spot and is drifting toward it. If the motion continues, the new spot will encounter the much larger storm system in August. Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.

APOD: 2008 May 5 - A Persistent Electrical Storm on Saturn
Explanation: How do large storms evolve on Saturn? On Earth, a hurricane can persist for weeks, while the Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been in existence for over 150 years. On Saturn, a storm system has now set a new endurance record, now being discernable for greater than three months. Electrical signals were detected from the storm in late November of 2007, while the above image was taken in early March 2008. The storm has roughly the width of planet Earth. Planetary scientists hypothesize that the storm runs deep into Saturn's cloud tops. The above image is shown in exaggerated colors combining violet and green light with light normally too red for humans to see. Visible on the upper right are shadows of Saturn's expansive ring system. Careful inspection will reveal Saturn's small moon Janus just below a ring shadow. Understanding weather on other planets helps atmospheric scientists better understand our Earth's weather. Observers of our Solar System's huge ringed world will be tracking the storm to see how it evolves and how long it will ultimately last.

APOD: 2008 January 8 - A Jupiter-Io Montage from New Horizons
Explanation: As the New Horizons spacecraft sweeps through the Solar System, it is taking breathtaking images of the planets. In February of last year, New Horizons passed Jupiter and the ever-active Jovian moon Io. In this montage, Jupiter was captured in three bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white. Complex hurricane-like ovals, swirls, and planet-ringing bands are visible in Jupiter's complex atmosphere. Io is digitally superposed in natural color. Fortuitously, a plume was emanating from Io's volcano Tvashtar. Frost and sulfuric lava cover the volcanic moon, while red-glowing lava is visible beneath the blue sunlight-scattering plume. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015.

APOD: 2007 October 15 - Jupiter's Clouds from New Horizons
Explanation: The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of Jupiter earlier this year while on the way out to Pluto. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible through even modest sized telescopes. The above image was taken near Jupiter's terminator, and shows that the Jovian giant possibly has the widest diversity of cloud patterns in our Solar System. On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiter's south pole. Here turbulent whirlpools and swirls are seen in a dark region, dubbed a belt, that rings the planet. Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure, complete with complex wave patterns. The energy that drives these waves likely comes from below. New Horizons is the fastest space probe ever launched, and is zipping through the Solar System on track to reach Pluto in 2015.

APOD: 2007 March 29 - Jupiter Moon Movie
Explanation: South is toward the top in this frame from a stunning movie featuring Jupiter and moons recorded last Thursday from the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. In fact, three jovian moons and two red spots are ultimately seen in the full video as they glide around the solar system's ruling gas giant. In the early frame above, Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, is off the lower right limb of the planet, while intriguing Europa is visible against Jupiter's cloud tops, also near the lower right. Jupiter's new red spot junior is just above the broad white band in the planet's southern (upper) hemisphere. In later frames, as planet and moons rotate (right to left), red spot junior moves behind Jupiter's left edge while the Great Red Spot itself comes into view from the right. Also finally erupting into view at the right, is Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io. To download the full 2 megabyte movie as an animated gif file, click on the picture.

APOD: 2007 March 7 - New Horizons Spacecraft Passes Jupiter
Explanation: A new spacecraft is headed for the outer Solar System. Named New Horizons, this robotic explorer passed Jupiter last week after being launched only in early 2006. New Horizons is being pulled by Jupiter's gravity to a greater speed toward its next target: Pluto in 2015. During its encounter with Jupiter, New Horizons was able to capture new images of many Jovian moons, Jupiter's complex and ever-changing atmosphere, and Jupiter's Little Red Spot, pictured above. Formed over the past few years from several smaller storms, Jupiter's Little Red Spot survived a near miss with Jupiter's better-known Great Red Spot last year. The above image of Jupiter covers over twice the diameter of the Earth.

APOD: 2006 July 25 - Jupiters Two Largest Storms Nearly Collide
Explanation: Two storms systems larger than Earth are nearly colliding right now on planet Jupiter. No one was sure what would happen, but so far both storms have survived. In the above false-color infrared image taken last week by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, the red spots appear white because their cloud tops tower above other clouds. Blue color represents lower clouds than white, while clouds colored red are the deepest. The smaller red spot, sometimes called Red Spot Jr. or just Oval BA, turned red earlier this year for reasons unknown. If both Jovian hurricanes continue to survive, they will surely pass near each other again in a few years since they revolve around Jupiter at different rates. Astronomers will continue to monitor Red Spot Jr. closely, however, to see if it will remain red when it rotates away from the larger Great Red Spot.

APOD: 2006 May 5 - Jupiter and the Red Spots
Explanation: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a swirling storm seen for over 300 years, since the beginning of telescopic observations. But in February 2006, planetary imager Christopher Go noticed it had been joined by Red Spot Jr - formed as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the remarkable reddish hue. This sharp Hubble Space Telescope image showing the two salmon-colored Jovian storms was recorded in April. About half the size of the original Red Spot, Red Spot Jr. is similar in diameter to planet Earth. Seen here below and left of the ancient storm system, it trails the Great Red Spot by about an hour as the planet rotates from left to right. While astronomers still don't exactly understand why Jupiter's red spots are red, they do think the appearance of Red Spot Jr. provides evidence for climate change on the Solar System's ruling gas giant.

APOD: 2006 March 18 - Red Spot Jr.
Explanation: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a swirling storm seen for over 300 years, since the beginning of telescopic observations of the Solar System's ruling gas giant. But over the last month it has been joined by Red Spot Jr. Thought to be similar to the Great Red Spot itself, this not-so-great red spot was actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the remarkable reddish hue. This webcam image showing the two red tinted Jovian storms was recorded on the morning of March 12 from the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia - part of a series showing Jupiter's rotation. Similar in diameter to planet Earth, Red Spot Jr. is expected to last for a while, and trails the Great Red Spot by about an hour as the planet rotates. Astronomers still don't exactly understand why Jupiter's red spots are red.

APOD: 2005 September 11 - Jupiters Clouds from Cassini
Explanation: Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible in very modest sized telescopes. The dark belts and light-colored zones of Jupiter's cloud bands are organized by planet girdling winds which reach speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour. On toward the Jovian poles though, the cloud structures become more mottled and convoluted until, as in this Cassini spacecraft mosaic of Jupiter, the planet's polar region begins to look something like a brain! This striking equator-to-pole change in cloud patterns is not presently understood but may be due in part to the effect of Jupiter's rapid rotation or to convection vortices generated at high latitudes by the massive planet's internal heat loss. The Cassini spacecraft captured this dramatically detailed view of Jupiter in 2000 December during its turn of the millennium flyby enroute to Saturn.

APOD: 2003 October 9 - Radio Jupiter
Explanation: This view of gas giant Jupiter, made from data recorded at the Very Large Array radio observatory near Socorro, New Mexico, may not look too familiar. In fact, there is no sign of a bright, round planet striped with cloud bands, sporting a Great Red Spot. Instead, the radio waves mapped in this false-color image are produced by energetic electrons trapped within Jupiter's intense magnetic field. The radio emitting region extends far beyond Jupiter's cloud tops, to over twice the visible radius of the planet, and surrounds Jupiter like an oversized version of Earth's Van Allen radiation belt. While it glows strongly at radio wavelengths, Jupiter's radiation belt is invisible in the more familiar optical and infrared views which show the Jovian cloud tops and atmospheric features in reflected sunlight.

APOD: 2003 March 19 - Jupiter's Great Dark Spot
Explanation: Seventeenth century astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an astute observer of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. So it seems only fitting that his namesake, the Cassini spacecraft, has enabled detailed observations of another planet-sized blemish -- Jupiter's Great Dark Spot. Unlike the Red Spot, the Great Dark Spot lies near Jupiter's north pole and seems to appear and disappear over periods of months rather than persisting for hundreds of years. Seen at ultraviolet wavelengths, the dark feature resides in the Jovian stratosphere confined by pole-encircling winds, analogous to planet Earth's antarctic ozone hole. This image of the Dark Spot is a single frame from a movie created with data recorded during the spacecraft's year 2000 flyby of Jupiter. Projected to show Jupiter's north polar region, no data are available for the blank central area, while the Great Dark Spot lies above and just left of center. The white circle marks 60 degrees latitude and the blue contour outlines a persistent Jovian auroral zone which may be related to the formation of the Great Dark Spot.

APOD: 2003 March 13 - WIRO at Jupiter
Explanation: Gazing out over the mountaintops from the Wyoming InfraRed Observatory (WIRO), astronomers recently recorded this bizarre looking image of the solar system's ruling planet, gas giant Jupiter. The false-color picture is a composite of images taken to test a sophisticated digital camera operating at liquid helium temperatures and sensitive to wavelengths about three times longer than visible red light. At those infrared wavelengths (near 2.1 microns) the molecular hydrogen and methane gas in Jupiter's dense lower atmosphere strongly absorb sunlight, so the normally bright, banded planet looks very dark. But particles and haze over the equator and poles rise above the absorbing layers into Jupiter's stratosphere and reflect the infrared sunlight. Also clearly extending into the Jovian stratosphere is the famous Great Red Spot seen here in yellow just under the equatorial band at the right. North is up in this view and Jupiter's rapid 10 hour rotation will soon carry the Great Red Spot behind the planet's right limb.

APOD: 2003 February 27 - When Moons and Shadows Dance
Explanation: It's no wonder Jupiter is a favorite target for even modest earthbound telescopes. The most massive planet in the solar system with four of the largest moons also boasts the famous Great Red Spot, a giant hurricane-like storm system over three hundred years old. Recorded on December 15, 2002 between 7:19 and 8:40 UT, over a thousand digital images were processed and stacked to create this spectacular 21 frame animation of the Jovian system. South is up and as the Great Red Spot tracks across the face of Jupiter, innermost Galilean moon Io enters the scene at the far right. Io occults (passes in front of) the edge of the more sedately orbiting Ganymede with Io's shadow moving quickly across the gas giant's cloud tops, just below the Red Spot. While the moon Callisto is outside the field of view, its large, dark shadow is also visible crossing the Jovian disk at the upper left. Viewed from Earth, the orbits of the Galilean moons presently lie nearly edge-on, offering many chances to observe similar dances of Jupiter's moons.

APOD: 2002 March 1 - Jupiter's Great X Ray Spot
Explanation: The Solar System's largest planet, gas giant Jupiter, is famous for its swirling Great Red Spot. In the right hand panel above, the familiar giant planet with storm system and cloud bands is shown in an optical image from the passing Cassini spacecraft. In the left hand panel, a false-color image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory presents a corresponding x-ray view of Jupiter. The Chandra image shows clearly, for the first time, x-ray spots and auroral x-ray emission from the poles. The x-ray spot dominating the emission from Jupiter's north pole (top) is perhaps as surprising for astronomers today as the Great Red Spot once was. Confounding previous theories, the x-ray spot is too far north to be associated with heavy electrically charged particles from the vicinity of volcanic moon Io. Chandra data also show that the spot's x-ray emission mysteriously pulsates over a period of about 45 minutes.

APOD: 2002 February 5 - Giant Storm Systems Battle on Jupiter
Explanation: Two of the largest storm systems on Jupiter are colliding, and nobody is sure what will result. The larger storm is the famous Great Red Spot, while the smaller is a large white oval. Both are swirling cloud systems that circulate on Jupiter. The white oval is part of a belt of clouds that circles Jupiter faster than the Great Red Spot. The oval started being slowed by the Great Red Spot two weeks ago and the collision could last another month. The oval will likely survive but could possibly be disrupted or absorbed. The two storm systems went at it at least once before in 1975 causing the Spot's red color to fade for several years. The passing Voyager 2 robot spacecraft took the above picture of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in 1979. A different white oval was then visible below the Spot.

APOD: 2001 December 1 - Neptune's Great Dark Spot: Gone But Not Forgotten
Explanation: When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by distant Neptune in August of 1989, astronomers were shocked. Since Neptune receives only 3 percent the sunlight Jupiter does, they expected to find a dormant, dark, frigid planet. Instead, the Voyager images revealed evidence of a dynamic and turbulent world. One of the most spectacular discoveries was of the Great Dark Spot, shown here in close-up. Surprisingly, it was comparable in size and at the same relative southern latitude as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, appearing to be a similar rotating storm system. Winds near the spot were measured up to 1500 miles per hour, the strongest recorded on any planet. The Voyager data also revealed that the Great Dark Spot varied significantly in size during the brief flyby. When the Hubble Space Telescope viewed the planet in 1994, the spot had vanished -- only to be replaced by another dark spot in the planet's northern hemisphere!

APOD: 2001 February 1 - Jupiter's Brain
Explanation: Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible in very modest sized telescopes. The dark belts and light-colored zones of Jupiter's cloud bands are organized by planet girdling winds which reach speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour. On toward the Jovian poles though, the cloud structures become more mottled and convoluted until, as in this Cassini spacecraft mosaic of Jupiter, the planet's polar region begins to look something like a brain! This striking equator-to-pole change in cloud patterns is not presently understood but may be due in part to the effect of Jupiter's rapid rotation or to convection vortices generated at high latitudes by the massive planet's internal heat loss. The Cassini spacecraft recorded this dramatically detailed view of Jupiter during its turn of the millennium flyby enroute to Saturn.

APOD: 2001 January 2 - Jupiter, Europa, and Callisto
Explanation: As the robot Cassini spacecraft rounds Jupiter on its way toward Saturn, it has taken a sequence of images of the gas giant with its four largest moons. Previously released images have highlighted Ganymede and Io. Pictured above are the two remaining Galilean satellites: Europa and Callisto. Europa is the bright moon superposed near Jupiter's Great Red Spot, while Callisto is the dark moon near the frame edge. Callisto is so dark that it would be hard to see here if its brightness was not digitally enhanced. Recent evidence indicates that both moons hold salt-water seas under surface ice that might be home to extra-terrestrial life. By noting the times that moons disappeared and reappeared behind Jupiter in 1676, Ole Roemer was able to make the first accurate estimation of the speed of light.

APOD: 2000 December 12 - Jupiter Eyes Ganymede
Explanation: Who keeps an eye on the largest moon in the Solar System? This moon, visible on the lower right, is Ganymede, and the planet it orbits, Jupiter, seems to be keeping a watchful eye, as its Great Red Spot appears serendipitously nearby. This recently released enhanced-contrast image from the robot spacecraft Cassini captures new details of the incredible intricacies of Jupiter's complex cloud patterns. Features as small as 250 kilometers can be seen. Counter-clockwise rotating high-pressure white ovals that are similar to the Great Red Spot appear in the red band below the spot. Between these spots are darker low-pressure systems that rotate clockwise. The hydrogen and helium that compose most of Jupiter's clouds is nearly invisible - the trace chemicals that give Jupiter these colors remain unknown. The Cassini spacecraft is using Jupiter to pull it toward Saturn, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2004.

APOD: 2000 November 23 - Cassini At Jupiter: Red Spot Movie
Explanation: Everything is big on Jupiter, the solar system's reigning gas giant. For example, Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a hurricane-like storm system at least twice the diameter of planet Earth. Approaching Jupiter in early October the Cassini spacecraft recorded the images used in this excellent movie of the swirling storm system and planet-circling cloud bands. Seven mosaicked frames make up the movie sequence, each separated by one or two rotation periods (Jupiter rotates about once every 10 hours). The sequence is viewed as a simple cylindrical map projection spanning 50 degrees north to 50 degrees south of the Jovian equator. Can you see the small bright "clouds" which seem to suddenly appear west (left) of the Red Spot? Data from the Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter since 1996, suggest that these features are large lightning storms. Saturn-bound, the Cassini spacecraft will take a few months to fly by Jupiter, coordinating Jovian explorations with Galileo and picking up speed for the final leg of its interplanetary journey.

APOD: 2000 November 18 - Jupiter And Family
Explanation: This composite image features classic portraits of members of one of the Solar System's most prominent families - Jupiter and its four large "Galilean" moons. Starting from the top the moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The top-to-bottom order is also the order of increasing distance from Jupiter. These are big moons indeed which attend the largest planet. The smallest of the lot, Europa, is the size of Earth's moon while Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. In fact, Ganymede with a diameter of 3,100 miles, is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. The swirling Great Red Spot appears at the edge of Jupiter. A hurricane-like storm system that has persisted for over 300 years, two to three earths could fit inside it. Battered Callisto's image was recorded during the 1979 flyby of Voyager. The other portraits were taken by the Galileo spacecraft which began exploring the Jovian system in 1995.

APOD: 2000 September 26 - Approaching Jupiter
Explanation: In 1979 the Voyager 1 spacecraft compiled this view as it approached the gas giant Jupiter. Snapping a picture every time the Great Red Spot was properly aligned, the above time-lapse sequence shows not only spot rotation but also the swirling of neighboring clouds. Since Jupiter takes about 10 hours to rotate, this short sequence actually covers several days. Voyager 1 shot past Jupiter rapidly taking pictures on which many discoveries would be made, including previously unknown cloud patterns, rings, moons, and active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. Voyager is moving so fast that it will one day leave our Solar System.

APOD: December 26, 1999 - West Of The Great Red Spot
Explanation: The turbulent region West of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is highlighted in this picture constructed from data recorded by the Galileo spacecraft. The image is color coded to show cloud height and thickness; white clouds are high and thick, light blue clouds are high and thin, and reddish clouds are low. The edge of the Red Spot itself appears blue here (lower right) and spans about 10,000 kilometers along the curving limb of the planet (north is up). Westward winds, deflected north by the circulation within the Great Red Spot, collide with Eastward winds at higher latitudes and generate the roiling, Turbulent structures. The largest eddies near the Northwestern edge of the Red Spot are bright, suggesting upward convection and high altitude cloud formation are taking place there.

APOD: August 6, 1999 - Hubble Tracks Jupiters Great Red Spot
Explanation: It is a hurricane twice the size of the Earth. It has been raging at least as long as telescopes could see it, and shows no signs of slowing. It is Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the largest swirling storm system in the Solar System. Like most astronomical phenomena, the Great Red Spot was neither predicted nor immediately understood after its discovery. Still today, details of how and why the Great Red Spot changes its shape, size, and color remain mysterious. A better understanding of the weather on Jupiter may help contribute to the better understanding of weather here on Earth. In the pictures on the left, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured Jupiter's Great Red Spot in various states over the past several years.

APOD: July 18, 1999 - Jupiter from Voyager
Explanation: This picture of the planet Jupiter was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it passed the planet in 1979. Jupiter, a gas giant planet with no solid surface, is the largest planet in the Solar System and is made mostly of the hydrogen and helium. Clearly visible in the above photo is the Great Red Spot, a giant, hurricane-like storm system that rotates with the clouds of Jupiter. It is so large three complete Earths could fit inside it. Astronomers have recorded this giant storm on Jupiter for over 300 years.

APOD: January 5, 1999 - A New Jupiter Oval Rotates
Explanation: Even Jupiter can do the twist. Large cloud systems on Jupiter rotate, and the newly formed oval pictured above is no different. This new oval formed earlier this year from the collision of two smaller ovals: an occurrence not unlike two large storms merging into one huge hurricane. Even this new swirling storm, however, is small compared to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The above-animated frame dithers between two pictures of the new oval taken roughly an hour apart. The Galileo spacecraft currently orbiting the giant Jovian planet captured the pictures.

APOD: October 22, 1998 - Jupiter: When Storms Collide
Explanation: Sometime in February, two of three long-lived Jovian storm systems known as "white ovals" apparently collided and merged -- forming what is now likely the second largest storm in the Solar System, after the famous Great Red Spot. The whitish, oval-shaped storms in Jupiter's banded atmosphere have been telescopically studied since the 1930s, but details of this surprising merger are unknown as Jupiter and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun when it happened. The aftermath is shown in the (top panel) Hubble Space Telescope picture, taken in July as part of the evidence investigators are using to reconstruct the facts of the case. Centered are the swirling white clouds of the newly created storm system which is about as wide as planet Earth. At its left is the remaining smaller white oval which seems to be drifting away from the larger new storm. Atmospheric temperature data from the Galileo spacecraft represented in the (bottom panel) false-color image show the new storm as a dark feature, cooler than its surroundings.

APOD: December 26, 1997 - West Of The Great Red Spot
Explanation: The turbulent region West of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is highlighted in this recent picture constructed from data recorded by the Galileo spacecraft. The image is color coded to show cloud height and thickness; white clouds are high and thick, light blue clouds are high and thin, and reddish clouds are low. The edge of the Red Spot itself appears blue here (lower right) and spans about 6,600 miles along the curving limb of the planet (north is up). Westward winds, deflected north by the circulation within the Great Red Spot, collide with Eastward winds at higher latitudes and generate the roiling, turbulent structures. The largest eddies near the Northwestern edge of the Red Spot are bright, suggesting upward convection and high altitude cloud formation are taking place there.

APOD: September 29, 1997 - Jupiter And Family
Explanation: This composite image features classic portraits of members of one of the Solar System's most prominent families - Jupiter and its four large "Galilean" moons. Starting from the top the moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The top-to-bottom order is also the order of increasing distance from Jupiter. These are big moons indeed which attend the largest planet. The smallest of the lot, Europa, is the size of Earth's moon while Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. In fact, Ganymede with a diameter of 3,100 miles, is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. The swirling Great Red Spot appears at the edge of Jupiter. A hurricane-like storm system that has persisted for over 300 years, two to three earths could fit inside it. Battered Callisto's image was recorded during the 1979 flyby of Voyager. The other portraits were taken by the Galileo spacecraft which began exploring the Jovian system in 1995.

APOD: August 8, 1997 - White Oval Clouds on Jupiter
Explanation: What are those white ovals all over Jupiter? Storms! Jupiter's clouds can swirl rapidly in raised high-pressure storm systems that circle the planet. The above pictured white ovals are located near the Great Red Spot, and have persisted on Jupiter since the 1930s. The Great Red Spot has persisted for at least 300 years. Currently, no one knows why ovals last as long as they do. White ovals are confined to circular belts around Jupiter, but can interact to cause nearby chaotic cloud regions.

APOD: March 11, 1997 - Jupiter: The Great Yellow Spot
Explanation: What happened to Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Operating at a chilly 55 degrees Kelvin, the Galileo Spacecraft's Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) recorded this composite image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in late June 1996. Red, green, and blue colors were chosen to represent three different infrared wavelengths detected by the NIMS instrument. The resulting yellowish green appearance of the massive Jovian storm system - a cold, high pressure area 2 to 3 Earth diameters wide - indicates that it lies high above the surrounding cloud features. Blue corresponds to regions where the clouds are relatively thin and the features lie at greater depths.

APOD: November 27, 1996 - Storm Clouds Over Jupiter
Explanation: Storm clouds, similar to the familiar cumulonimbus thunderheads of Earth, appear to be present on Jupiter. The mosaic of images above shows the region near the raging edge of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, itself some 2 to 3 Earths wide, as observed by the Galileo spacecraft in June of this year. The false colors represent altitude. Low altitude clouds are blue, high, thick clouds are white and high, thin clouds are pink, with the box at the upper right containing the high cloud features likened to the storm clouds of Earth. Scientists speculate that these features are evidence for an abundance of water in at least some regions of Jupiter's atmosphere. On Earth, atmospheric water vapor plays an important role in driving winds - this could well be true on Jupiter, where winds reach up to 300 miles per hour.

APOD: August 27, 1996 - Galileo Zooms in on Jupiter's Red Spot
Explanation: What does the largest storm system ever recorded look like close-up? This storm system is Jupiter's Great Red Spot and it was captured recently in detail by the robot spacecraft Galileo now in orbit around Jupiter. Using real images from three color filters, the Galileo team was able to compute what a person would see if able to float just above this ancient rotating cloud system. But don't get too close - remember that Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a cold, high pressure area more than twice as wide as planet Earth.

APOD: August 2, 1996 - Galileo, Cassini, and the Great Red Spot
Explanation: Imagine a hurricane that lasted for 300 years! Jupiter's Great Red Spot indeed seems to be a giant hurricane-like storm system rotating with the Jovian clouds. Observed in 1655 by Italian-French astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini it is seen here over 300 years later - still going strong - in a mosaic of recent Galileo spacecraft images. The Great Red Spot is a cold, high pressure area 2-3 times wider than planet Earth. Its outer edge rotates in a counter clockwise direction about once every six days. Jupiter's own rapid rotation period is a brief 10 hours. The Solar System's largest gas giant planet, it is presently well placed for evening viewing. (APOD thanks to Alan Radecki for assembling a preliminary mosaic from the Galileo imagery!)

APOD: May 8, 1996 - Neptune's Great Dark Spot: Gone But Not Forgotten
Explanation: When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by distant Neptune in August of 1989, astronomers were shocked. Since Neptune receives only 3 percent the sunlight Jupiter does, they expected to find a dormant, dark, frigid planet. Instead, the Voyager images revealed evidence of a dynamic and turbulent world. One of the most spectacular discoveries was of the Great Dark Spot, shown here in close-up. Surprisingly, it was comparable in size and at the same relative southern latitude as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, appearing to be a similar rotating storm system. Winds near the spot were measured up to 1500 miles per hour, the strongest recorded on any planet. The Voyager data also revealed that the Great Dark Spot varied significantly in size during the brief flyby. When the Hubble Space Telescope viewed the planet in 1994, the spot had vanished -- only to be replaced by another dark spot in the planet's northern hemisphere!

APOD: June 25, 1995 - Jupiter from Voyager
Explanation: Imagine a hurricane that lasted for 300 years! This picture of the planet Jupiter was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it passed the planet in 1979. Jupiter, a gas giant planet with no solid surface, is the largest planet in the solar system and is made mostly of the hydrogen and helium. Clearly visible in the photo is the Great Red Spot, a giant, hurricane-like storm system that rotates with the clouds of Jupiter. It is so large three complete Earths could fit inside it. Astronomers have observed this giant storm on Jupiter for over 300 years.