Red Jr. Captured By New Horizons

New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter as it zipped past on February 27, 2007 receiving a gravity assisted velocity boost. This photograph was captured when the spacecraft was 3 million km (1.8 million miles), resolving objects as large as 15 km (9 miles) across.

The big storm in the middle of the photograph is Jupiter’s Little Red Spot, which has been steadily growing in size and deepening in colour over the last few years. Another, even smaller storm is below and to the right.

Scientists aren’t sure why the spot turned red in colour, but they think that the storm has gotten so large that it’s dredging up material from deeper down in the planet’s atmosphere.

Original Source: NASA/JHUAPL News Release