Do Juno what we're gonna Spot?

Right now, as you read this, a little spacecraft is hurtling through the void of space. The spacecraft's name: Juno. The spacecraft's mission: to find out more about the planet Jupiter.

So far Juno's been in Jupiter's orbit for over a year and has clocked up 71 million miles of orbitage (that's not a real word) in the process. It's done lots of science and snapped fantastic photos that clever people have colour-enhanced like this one of the planet's South Pole which is mesmerising in both its beauty and the fact that Van Gogh didn't paint it.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino

But now we're in for a treat because Juno is headed to the most famous spot on Jupiter: its... well... spot. Jupiter's Great Red Spot, to be precise, is a storm a whopping 10,000 miles wide. To put that into context this thing could hold two, maybe three Earths in it! Adding to this mind-blowing fact, the Spot has been consistently monitored for 187 years, but some observations indicate that it could have existed for as long as 350.

NASA/JPL

The manoeuvre will occur in the early hours of the morning (here in the UK anyway), with Juno coming closest to the centre of Jupiter at approximately 02:40 UTC (or 03:40 BST), at that point it will be 2,200 miles above the surface of Jupiter, which is the lowest predicted altitude for Juno so far. According to NASA, it will then take Juno only 11 minutes and 33 seconds to traverse 24,713 miles (just under the circumference of Earth) to its closest point above the Great Red Spot, with the spacecraft's speed predicted to exceed 130,000 miles an hour! While doing this, Juno will be looking under the clouds to "learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere".

So a lot of interesting stuff going on around the neighbourhood of Jupiter very soon. You can follow the action by following the official NASA Twitter page (@NASA) and Juno's Twitter page (@NASAJuno). If you're a Reddit fan (which you should be because literally everything is on there), you can also checkout the r/space subreddit, which is full of people that know way more about space than me. Of course if there are any cool pictures of the Spot or cool science facts that I can comprehend I'll also cover them on this blog.

I also recommend this fantastic bit of software that you can download called NASA's Eyes, which shows you tonnes of cool space stuff including 3D visualisations of where all its spacecraft are in real time with information about their missions and a 3D model of Earth with the very latest pictures of Earth from Space mapped onto it. You can download that here.

This is a very exciting moment for all those that love Space, so have fun spotting the Spot!

Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-spacecraft-to-fly-over-jupiters-great-red-spot-july-10

https://www.reddit.com/r/junomission/comments/6m8q8j/perijove_7_update_and_discussion_thread_great_red/

https://www.facebook.com/NationalSpaceCentre/photos/a.397185996002.179244.54757196002/10154626554841003/?type=3