NASA craft closing in on Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to give us our best look yet of Jupiter’s swirling Great Red Spot.

The spacecraft flew directly above the monster storm Monday night, passing 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometres) above the cloud tops.

That’s close by space standards.

Juno’s instruments will peer through the clouds and help scientists determine how deep the storm is.

The Great Red Spot is so big that at 10,000 miles wide (16,000 kilometres), it could swallow Earth.

It will take NASA a few days

to get the close-up images. The team plans to release them Friday.

NASA, ESA, AND A. SIMON (GSFC) VIA AP, FILE This April 3 file image made available by NASA shows the planet Jupiter when it was at a distance of about 415 million miles from Earth.