By Tim Binnall
An amateur astronomer in South Africa has been credited with finding a new spot that recently appeared in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The remarkable discovery was reportedly made by Clyde Foster back on May 31st, when he was observing the planet via a telescope at his home. Much to his surprise, he noticed a peculiar circular shape relatively close to Jupiter's famed Great Red Spot which had never appeared on prior images of the mysterious world.
As luck would have it, Foster's report on the discovery came just a few days before NASA's Juno probe performed its 27th flyby of the planet. The craft was not only able to confirm the astronomer's find, but also snapped an image of the new atmospheric feature. In a press release announcing the discovery, the space agency explained that it was "a plume of cloud material erupting above the upper cloud layers of the Jovian atmosphere." Unlike its massive and more famous neighboring storm, Foster's find has been given a decidedly down-to-Earth and rather delightful moniker: Clyde's Spot.