NASA's Juno Spacecraft Finds Out More about Jupiter's Great Red Spot
2021-11-03
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1Researchers have made a new discovery about a huge and long-lasting storm in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter.
2A study published recently in Science says that Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm wide enough to cover the Earth, is also extremely deep.
3The U.S. space agency NASA's spacecraft, Juno, is using special tools to make images of the planet.
4Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas was the lead scientist in the study.
5He said microwave radiation and gravity-mapping tools from Juno show the storm "fades out" slowly and "keeps going down."
6He explained that the storm does not have a clear ending point below the clouds.
7The storm probably has a depth between 350 and 500 kilometers.
8It is 16,000 kilometers wide.
9The planet is known for powerful storms in its atmosphere.
10Thousands of storms swirl around Jupiter at any time, scientists said.
11The storms cause the colorful cloud patterns shown by photography and mapping tools.
12Some of the tools produce images in three dimensions.
13Bolton said the next project for Juno is to map the storms in the extreme north and south of the planet.
14They could be even deeper than the Great Red Spot.
15Bolton said he did not want to guess that the Great Red Spot was the deepest of the planet's storms.
16He said, however, since the spot is the widest, it might also be the deepest.
17The Juno spacecraft started orbiting Jupiter in 2016.
18NASA recently announced the project will be extended to 2025.
19I'm Dan Friedell.
1Researchers have made a new discovery about a huge and long-lasting storm in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter. 2A study published recently in Science says that Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm wide enough to cover the Earth, is also extremely deep. 3The U.S. space agency NASA's spacecraft, Juno, is using special tools to make images of the planet. 4Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas was the lead scientist in the study. He said microwave radiation and gravity-mapping tools from Juno show the storm "fades out" slowly and "keeps going down." He explained that the storm does not have a clear ending point below the clouds. 5The storm probably has a depth between 350 and 500 kilometers. It is 16,000 kilometers wide. 6The planet is known for powerful storms in its atmosphere. Thousands of storms swirl around Jupiter at any time, scientists said. The storms cause the colorful cloud patterns shown by photography and mapping tools. Some of the tools produce images in three dimensions. 7Bolton said the next project for Juno is to map the storms in the extreme north and south of the planet. They could be even deeper than the Great Red Spot. 8Bolton said he did not want to guess that the Great Red Spot was the deepest of the planet's storms. He said, however, since the spot is the widest, it might also be the deepest. 9The Juno spacecraft started orbiting Jupiter in 2016. NASA recently announced the project will be extended to 2025. 10I'm Dan Friedell. 11Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by The Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. 12What is your guess about what else NASA will discover about Jupiter? Tell us in the Comments Section and visit our Facebook page. 13_________________________________________________________ 14Words in This Story 15fade - v. to become weaker; to disappear slowly 16swirl - v. to move in circles or to cause such a motion 17pattern - n. a repeated form or design 18dimension - n. the length, width, height, or depth of something : a measurement in one direction (such as the distance from the ceiling to the floor in a room)