Jupiter: The Great Yellow Spot

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 1997-03-11 · NASA (public domain)

Jupiter: The Great Yellow Spot — APOD for 1997-03-11

Explanation : What happened to Jupiter's Great Red Spot ? Operating at a chilly 55 degrees Kelvin , the Galileo Spacecraft's Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) recorded this composite image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in late June 1996. Red, green, and blue colors were chosen to represent three different infrared wavelengths detected by the NIMS instrument. The resulting yellowish green appearance of the massive Jovian storm system - a cold, high pressure area 2 to 3 Earth diameters wide - indicates that it lies high above the surrounding cloud features. Blue corresponds to regions where the clouds are relatively thin and the features lie at greater depths.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1997-03-11 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.