Original file (1,818 × 1,899 pixels, file size: 648 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
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Summary
| Description |
English: The Little Red Spot: Closest View Yet
This is a mosaic of three New Horizons images of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, taken with the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera at 17:41 Universal Time on February 26 from a range of 3.5 million kilometers (2.1 million miles). The image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel, and the area covered measures 33,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) from top to bottom, two and one-half times the diameter of Earth. The Little Red Spot, a smaller cousin of the famous Great Red Spot, formed in the past decade from the merger of three smaller Jovian storms, and is now the second-largest storm on Jupiter. About a year ago its color, formerly white, changed to a reddish shade similar to the Great Red Spot, perhaps because it is now powerful enough to dredge up reddish material from deeper inside Jupiter. These are the most detailed images ever taken of the Little Red Spot since its formation, and will be combined with even sharper images taken by New Horizons 10 hours later to map circulation patterns around and within the storm. LORRI took the images as the Sun was about to set on the Little Red Spot. The LORRI camera was designed to look at Pluto, where sunlight is much fainter than it is at Jupiter, so the images would have been overexposed if LORRI had looked at the storm when it was illuminated by the noonday Sun. The dim evening illumination helped theLORRI camera obtain well-exposed images. The New Horizons team used predictions made by amateur astronomers in 2006, based on their observations of the motion of the Little Red Spot with backyard telescopes, to help them accurately point LORRI at the storm. These are among a handful of Jupiter system images already returned by New Horizons during its close approach to Jupiter. Most of the data being gathered by the spacecraft are stored onboard and will be downlinked to Earth during March and April 2007. |
| Source |
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_3.html Bigger image from APOD |
| Author | Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute |
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
New Horizons images on this Web site are generally available for non-commercial educational and public information purposes, so long as their use does not convey NASA's, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's or Southwest Research Institute's implicit or explicit endorsement of any goods or services. No fee or written permission is required for their use, but please credit images to NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (unless otherwise noted in the image caption). New Horizons is a NASA mission and adheres to the space agency's guidelines for image use and reproduction. Visit the NASA Web site "Using NASA Imagery and Linking to NASA Web Sites" for more information, or contact the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Public Affairs Office at (240) 228-5020 or michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu. |
Licensing
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This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) |  |
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File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 22:59, 22 March 2007 | | 1,818 × 1,899 (648 KB) | Rdl381 | The New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) has returned stunning new images of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, obtained as a 2-by-2 mosaic at 0312 UTC on February 27, 2007, from a distance of 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles). The image s |
| 08:49, 7 March 2007 |  | 1,740 × 1,940 (796 KB) | Xdado | The Little Red Spot: Closest View Yet This is a mosaic of three New Horizons images of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, taken with the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera at 17:41 Universal Time on February 26 from a range of 3.5 milli | |
| 22:01, 28 February 2007 |  | 432 × 482 (28 KB) | Phantomdj | The Little Red Spot: Closest View Yet This is a mosaic of three New Horizons images of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, taken with the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera at 17:41 Universal Time on February 26 from a range of 3.5 milli |
