Juno's close up flyby of Great Red Spot: NASA's probe peers deep into Jupiter's deep red heart

New Delhi: NASA's Juno spacecraft flew over Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot on Monday, kicking off the first-ever close-up study of this iconic storm and passing by at an altitude of only 5,600 miles.

As per NASA, Juno's closest approach with the gas giant's iconic storm occured on Monday, July 10, at 6:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. EDT), peering into its deep deep red heart and passing about 2,200 miles above the planet's cloud tops.

Watch below - Real-time fly-by simulation

Video credit: Space Videos/YouTube

During the flyby, eight of the spacecraft's instruments as well as its imager, JunoCam, were in operation to find out how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special, NASA said.

The data collection of the Great Red Spot is part of Juno's sixth science flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops.

Juno, launched on August 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016.