NASA’s Juno spacecraft will peer into Jupiter’s planet-sized storm tonight

After spending more than a year at Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to fly over the planet’s most iconic landmark: the Great Red Spot. It’s a giant storm twice as wide as Earth that’s been brewing on Jupiter for hundreds of years. Now, Juno is going to get the closest ever view of this extraterrestrial cyclone.

The Great Red Spot is the most recognizable part of Jupiter, but there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding this massive storm. It’s unclear exactly how long it’s been around, for instance. Stargazers first noticed a large spot on Jupiter in the 1600s, according to NASA, though we don’t know if they were actually looking at the same feature. Either, way, the Great Red Spot has been continuously monitored since the early...

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