900 km diameter super storm sweeps Jupiter

The Juno probe satellite discovered many large storms nearly as large as Earth at Jupiter's two poles.

Jupiter's south pole with 900 km diameter vortexes. Photo: NASA.

Several violent storms nearly the size of Earth have been detected by the Juno probe satellite. The images sent back by Juno have confused scientists who thought Jupiter had little meteorological activity, according to the Independent.

Both poles of Jupiter are covered in giant storms, which form dense clusters and constantly interact with each other. Juno has observed dozens of cyclones nearly 900 kilometers in diameter, as well as weather systems thousands of kilometers in size.

"I don't think anyone would have guessed that this was Jupiter. We were completely baffled, unable to understand how these storms form, how stable they are, and how Jupiter's north pole is completely different from its south pole," said Scott Bolton, head of the Juno project. Some storms reach nearly to the center of the planet.

Juno began its five-year journey to Jupiter in August 2011 and entered orbit around the planet in July 2016. It is scheduled to make 37 orbits over 20 months, providing the most detailed data ever obtained about the largest planet in the solar system. The satellite is then scheduled to crash into Jupiter in February 2018.

Scientists chose a polar orbit, which keeps Juno away from Jupiter and its powerful magnetic field. Every 53 days, the satellite will make a two-hour flyby of Jupiter to collect information and images. Each time it transmits data back to Earth, it takes a day and a half.

According to VNE