NASA gets up close and personal with Jupiter's Great Red Spot

NASA's Juno spacecraft has beamed back some of the most detailed images of Jupiter's Great Red Eye ever taken.

The probe snapped the remarkable photos on its sixth science orbit on July 10. In less than 12 minutes, the probe traveled nearly 25,000 miles and passed directly above the Great Red Spot at an altitude of only 5,600 miles.

"For generations people from all over the world and all walks of life have marveled over the Great Red Spot," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton said. "Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal."

Since its 2011 launch, Juno has traveled 71 million miles in orbit around Jupiter studying the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

The mission is managed out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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