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First Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) Image of the Great Red Spot

March 26, 1998
This infrared image, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in late June, 1996, of Jupiter's Great Red Spot has different colors than what you normally see.

This image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot has different colors than what you normally see. This is because it was recorded by an instrument that looks at infrared "light" (rather than visible), the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) in late June, 1996. Red, green, and blue colors were chosen to represent what the NIMS "eye" saw at three different infrared wavelengths, which were picked because they reveal the differences in Jupiter's cloud heights. The yellow-green tinge of the Great Red Spot indicates the cloud particles are higher relative to the surrounding region, and shows structure within the red spot itself. The blue regions indicate a thinning of the clouds there.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov.

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