When Pioneer 11 swept by the giant planet Jupiter last December, the little unmanned spacecraft took a dozen closeup pictures. Last week, after painstakingly clarifying the images by photographic and computer techniques, NASA released part of its planetary portfolio. The stunning photographs included the most detailed view yet of Jupiter's great red spot.
First observed through primitive telescopes three centuries ago, the puzzling, larger-than-earth-size blemish has been attributed to everything from an island of solid hydrogen in the planet's thick atmosphere to an anomaly in the strong Jovian magnetic field. Pioneer's closeup...
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