Image 3-10
Storms and Swirls

This close-up image of Jupiter was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in March os 1979. The spacecraft was 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) away at the time. This region is just to the southwest of the famous great red spot. Like the red spot, the smaller white spots are cyclonic storms in the atmosphere. The spot on the left is known to be at least 40 years old. The great red spot itself is at least 300 years old. Scientists still do not know why these storms are able to remain stable for such a long period of time.