Image: Neptune's Great Dark Spot

Description: Neptune's Great Dark Spot, a large anticyclonic storm similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, observed by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. This photograph shows the last face on view of the Great Dark Spot that Voyager will make with the narrow angle camera. The image was shuttered 45 hours before closest approach at a distance of 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles). The smallest structures that can be seen are of an order of 50 kilometers (31 miles). The image shows feathery white clouds that overlie the boundary of the dark and light blue regions. The pinwheel (spiral) structure of both the dark boundary and the white cirrus suggest a storm system rotating counterclockwise. Periodic small scale patterns in the white cloud, possibly waves, are short lived and do not persist from one Neptunian rotation to the next. This color composite was made from the clear and green filters of the narrow-angle camera. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
Title: Neptune's Great Dark Spot
Credit: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00052
Author: NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No