Don't miss Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Washington, Jan 16 ( IANS) Scientists have released incredible new images of Jupiter megastorm from the data sent by its Juno probe that reveal a crescent Jupiter and the iconic Great Red Spot.

Below the Great Red Spot is visible a reddish long-lived storm known as Oval BA. It also has a series of storms shaped like white ovals, known informally as the 'string of pearls.'

The images were created by Roman Tkachenko, a citizen scientist using data from Juno's JunoCam instrument, NASA said in a statement on Monday.

Jupiter which is the biggest in the solar system, appears as a deep red orb surrounded by layers of pale yellow, orange and white.

The Great Red Spot is a giant, spinning storm in Jupiter's atmosphere and is more than twice the size of Earth.

Winds inside this storm reach speeds of about 270 miles per hour.

In the late 1800s, it was estimated to be about about 40,000 kms in diameter -- wide enough for three Earths to fit side by side.

The images were taken on Decemeber 11, 2016 as the Juno spacecraft performed its third close flyby of Jupiter.

At the time of the picture, the spacecraft was about 458,800 kms from the planet.

--IANS

rt/na/vm