A DIFFERENT VIEW OF JUPITER'S GREAT RED SPOT
The first discrete ammonia ice cloud positively identified on Jupiter is shown in this false-color image that was taken with the Near-infrared Mapping Spectrometer on the NASA's Galileo spacecraft on June 26, 1996. Ammonia ice (light blue) is shown in clouds to the northwest (upper left) of the Great Red Spot. This unusual cloud, inside the turbulent wake region of the Great Red Spot, is produced by powerful updrafts of ammonia--laden air from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. These updrafts are generated by the turbulence induced in Jupiter's massive westward-moving air currents by the nearby Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot, which has existed for at least 300 years, is the oldest and largest weather system in our solar system. It is over 20,000 kilometers wide (12,400 miles), roughly twice the diameter of the Earth.
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