NASA’s Juno probe dives on Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

NASA has flown over the biggest storm in the Solar System - peering into its deep red heart, and hopefully discovering why it’s shrinking.

IT’S the Solar System’s largest — and oldest — continuously raging storm.

And NASA’s just taken its first close look.

The unmanned Juno space probe flew over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot about noon today in a long-awaited journey that is hoped to shine new light on the forces driving the storm.

Did Juno? In honor of my upcoming #Jupiter #GreatRedSpot flyby, here are #10Things to know about the iconic feature https://t.co/OPoYGQijTh pic.twitter.com/Ua4j5qtKmX

— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 10, 2017

The iconic weather anomaly was first sighted in 1665.

The raging tempest’s been churning away at 600+km/h ever since.

But its intensity has varied.

I love the recreation of perijove 6 using ground-based telescope data!https://t.co/ObT5qBUuj5 https://t.co/bB37u6zrGe

— Jason Davis (@jasonrdavis) July 10, 2017

The Great Red Spot appeared to get angry in the early years of last century — stretching into an oval more than three full Earths across as brown and white weather bands raced above and below it.

RELATED: Why Jupiter’s storms have astronomers in a spin

But by the time Voyager 1 flashed past in 1979, it had quietened somewhat.

That shrinking has continued. Today, it’s barely half the size it was.

And considerably rounder.

Why? We don’t know.

Nor do we know why it is so distinctly red.

With today’s fly-by, many mysteries may be about to be solved.

EXPLORE MORE: Jupiter’s twin points to Solar System 2.0

The Juno spacecraft plunged into a close orbit of the gas giant in order to scan the 16,000-kilometer-wide storm.

It directed all eight of its on-board instruments, including its camera, to peer deep into the vortex as it passed about 9000 kilometres overhead.

@NASAJuno image #GreatRedSpot processed by R.Tkachenko taken in January from 458,000km. Today's images only 9,000km! https://t.co/ZCZZnheFHq pic.twitter.com/iyQtXMTyOD

— CanberraDSN (@CanberraDSN) July 10, 2017

The red spot is itself cooler (and therefore higher) than the bulk of Jupiter’s atmosphere around it. It’s hoped Juno’s instruments can penetrate its clouds to measure how deep the roots of this storm go.

Juno launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in August, 2011, on a mission to learn more about Jupiter’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.