APOD: 2020 October 19 - A Flight over Jupiter Near the Great Red Spot

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is titled "A Flight over Jupiter Near the Great Red Spot." Launched in 2011, Juno has been on station in a polar orbit around Jupiter since 2016. Among its discoveries are unexpectedly deep atmospheric jet streams, the most powerful auroras ever recorded, and water-bearing clouds bunched near Jupiter's equator. This 5-minute video (music by Vangelis) uses images from NASA’s Juno mission to recreate what it might have looked like to ride along with the Juno spacecraft as it performed its 27th close flyby of Jupiter on June 2, 2020.

During the closest approach of this pass, the Juno spacecraft came within approximately 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) of Jupiter’s cloud tops. At that point, Jupiter’s powerful gravity accelerated the spacecraft to tremendous speed – about 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet.