Visions Of Jupiter
At about 89,000 miles in diameter, Jupiter could swallow 1,000 Earths. It is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere. Such winds sustain spinning anticyclones like the Great Red Spot—a raging storm three and a half times the size of Earth located in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. In January and February 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft zoomed toward Jupiter, capturing hundreds of images during its approach. The observations revealed many unique features of the planet that are still being explored to this day. Watch the video to see a time-lapse of Jupiter assembled from images taken by the spacecraft.
Explore views of the planet captured by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.
The Imaging Science Subsystem cameras aboard NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft captured these images of Jupiter.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is one of the biggest and longest-lasting storms in the solar system.
White spots on Jupiter can come and go. They evolve for reasons that still aren’t fully understood.
Dark spots found near Jupiter’s equator, like the one shown here, may actually be cloud-free openings in the atmosphere.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Video and images courtesy of NASA/JPL
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Writer
- Julia Calderone (USRA)
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, March 18, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.