Stunning image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot shows ‘iconic’ storm twice as large as Earth

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a stunning portrait of a storm much larger than Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years.

The image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was taken from about 9,600 miles away by the space probe Juno, which is exploring the massive planet in the first solar-powered mission in the outer solar system, officials said.

The high-pressure region in Jupiter’s atmosphere has been churning an anticyclonic storm for over 350 years, producing the most recognizable feature of the Gas Giant, according to NASA.

The Great Red Spot has been shrinking since it was last measured by the Voyager spacecraft in 1979; its height has diminished by an eighth and its width by at least a third over the past four decades, the new image revealed.

However, the storm is still twice as large as Earth and Juno’s observations indicates that it reaches about 200 miles beneath the planet’s clouds.

Winds in the Great Red Spot can reach speeds of up to 400 miles per hour — or about two-and-a-half times the velocity of a Category 5 hurricane, according to the space agency.

As the planet consists of swirling gases and liquids, there is no solid ground on Jupiter to weaken the massive storm system.

Juno launched in 2011 and arrived in the planet’s orbit in 2016. It is now in the third year of its extended mission to chronicle the massive planet and its up-to-95 officially recognized moons.