The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is not a misnomer, considering its size is about three and a half times that of Earth. And this mysterious weather phenomenon on the gas giant, which has been swirling over the planet for at least 150 years — it could even be as much as 350 years — is set to get a closer look when NASA’s Juno spacecraft flies over it July 10. 
 
 At 10:30 p.m. EDT on July 4, Juno completes one year in orbit around Jupiter, and the July 10 maneuver will be its sixth science flyby over Jupiter’s cloud tops. Shortly after 10:06 p.m. EDT, the spacecraft will be about 5,600 miles above the crimson swirls and coils of the spinning anticyclone which is 10,000 miles wide. It will be the first time a human-made instrument would be so close to the Great Red Spot. 
 
 Read: Chaotic Cyclones, Massive Magnetism At Jupiter Revealed By Juno 
 
 All of Juno’s eight scientific instruments, as well as its color camera — JunoCam — will be operational during the flyby. 
 
 “Jupiter’s mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter. This monumental storm has raged on the solar system’s biggest planet for centuries. Now, Juno and her cloud-penetrating science instruments will dive in to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special,” Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement Saturday. 
 
 Information gathered by Juno during the July 10 flyby will be supplemented by data gleaned from observations made from Earth. On May 18, two telescopes on Mauna Kea peak in Hawaii obtained very high resolution images of Jupiter at different wavelengths. 
 
 Photo: Gemini Observatory/AURA/NASA/JPL-Caltech 
 
 Observations with the Gemini North telescope used special near-infrared filters that provided a glimpse of the Jupiter’s upper atmosphere and clouds, and showed a long ribbon-like wave extending off the eastern side of the Great Red Spot. Meanwhile, Subaru Telescope’s Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer made mid-infrared observations, and revealed the interior of the Spot to be cold and cloudy, increasingly so toward its center, and becoming warmer and clearer at the outer regions. 
 
 Photo: NAOJ/NASA/JPL-Caltech 
 
 Juno science team member Glenn Orton of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, explained the significance of the data in a statement Friday: “Observations with Earth’s most powerful telescopes enhance the spacecraft’s planned observations by providing three types of additional context. We get spatial context from seeing the whole planet. We extend and fill in our temporal context from seeing features over a span of time. And we supplement with wavelengths not available from Juno. The combination of Earth-based and spacecraft observations is a powerful one-two punch in exploring Jupiter.” 
 
 Read: Juno Photos Of Jupiter Reveal New Discoveries About Gas Planet 
 
 At its closest approach during the flyby, which will happen at 9:55 p.m. EDT July 10, Juno will be about 2,200 miles over the cloud tops. Before it reaches the Great Red Spot, the spacecraft would have traveled 24,713 miles in eleven minutes and 33 seconds. When Juno marks its orbital anniversary Tuesday, it would have covered a total of approximately 71 million miles in orbit around Jupiter. 

 This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Just days after celebrating its first anniversary in Jupiter orbit, NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly directly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the gas giant's iconic, 10,000-mile-wide (16,000-kilometer-wide) storm. This will be humanity's first up-close and personal view of the gigantic feature—a storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years. 
 
 "Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "This monumental storm has raged on the solar system's biggest planet for centuries. Now, Juno and her cloud-penetrating science instruments will dive in to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special." 
 
 The data collection of the Great Red Spot is part of Juno's sixth science flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops. Perijove (the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter's center) will be on Monday, July 10, at 6:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. EDT). At the time of perijove, Juno will be about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops. Eleven minutes and 33 seconds later, Juno will have covered another 24,713 miles (39,771 kilometers) and will be directly above the coiling crimson cloud tops of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The spacecraft will pass about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the Giant Red Spot clouds. All eight of the spacecraft's instruments as well as its imager, JunoCam, will be on during the flyby. 
 
 On July 4 at 7:30 p.m. PDT (10:30 p.m. EDT), Juno will have logged exactly one year in Jupiter orbit. At the time, the spacecraft will have chalked up about 71 million miles (114.5 million kilometers) in orbit around the giant planet. 
 
 "The success of science collection at Jupiter is a testament to the dedication, creativity and technical abilities of the NASA-Juno team," said Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Each new orbit brings us closer to the heart of Jupiter's radiation belt, but so far the spacecraft has weathered the storm of electrons surrounding Jupiter better than we could have ever imagined." 
 
 Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet's cloud tops—as close as about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. 
 
 Early science results from NASA's Juno mission portray the largest planet in our solar system as a turbulent world, with an intriguingly complex interior structure, energetic polar aurora, and huge polar cyclones. 
 
 Explore further: Juno spacecraft set for fifth Jupiter flyby 

 After traveling for nearly five years and 1.8-billion miles, NASA's Juno spacecraft made it to Jupiter on July 4 and began orbiting the planet at 8:53 p.m. Pacific time -- just one second off its scheduled arrival. Here's everything you need to know about the mission.
– NASA's Juno spacecraft will celebrate its first birthday circling Jupiter with the first close-up early next week of the gassy planet's Great Red Spot, Phys.org reports. The "spot" is actually an epic, 10,000-mile-wide storm that has likely been swirling above our solar system's biggest planet for centuries. Jupiter's most famous weather phenomenon is 3.5 times the size of Earth, notes the International Business Times. After flying over Jupiter's iconic cloud belt a handful of times over the past year, Juno is set to "dive" into the storm on July 10 at 9:55pm EDT, says Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, per NASA. The purpose is "to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special," he notes. Juno will hover about 5,600 miles above the maelstrom's crimson clouds. "Each new orbit brings us closer to the heart of Jupiter's radiation belt," adds NASA's Rick Nybakken, per Phys.org. He adds that so far Juno has tolerated a pounding by electrons "better than we could have ever imagined." With eight instruments and a color JunoCam, the craft's data collection will be boosted by detailed images obtained in May by two powerful telescopes in Hawaii pointed at Jupiter. The Great Red Spot, which has been regularly observed since 1830, has fascinated earthlings ever since and "is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter," says Bolton. Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun, is essentially a giant gas bag composed of substances like hydrogen and helium. After a five-year, 1.8-billion-mile journey, Juno entered the planet's orbit on July 4, 2016. (Jupiter also has a Great Cold Spot.)