New Pictures Show Jupiter Is Missing a Stripe Updated

digme

Hugh Collins
AOL News
(May 13) -- New pictures of Jupiter show that a huge band of dark clouds that normally surrounds the giant planet has vanished.

The planet's appearance usually is dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere -- one in the north and another in the south -- along with the Giant Red Spot, an enormous storm that is more than twice the size of Earth.

All three were visible at the end of last year before the planet went behind the sun. When it re-emerged last month, new pictures from Australian astronomer Anthony Wesley showed the southern cloud band was nowhere to be seen.
Anthony Wesley, The Planetary Society
The photo at left shows Jupiter without the band of clouds that typically circles it south of its famous Giant Red Spot. The photo at right shows the cloud belt intact.


"It just doesn't look right," amateur astronomer Bob King of Duluth, Minn., wrote on his blog AstroBob. "Jupiter with only one belt is almost like seeing Saturn when its rings are edge-on and invisible for a time."

This is not the first time the southern band has gone missing. It vanished in the 1990s and was also absent in 1973 when NASA took its first close-up pictures of the planet, according to New Scientist.

The disappearing band may be the result of changes in the color of the clouds that make it up, scientists believe. According to this theory, the band is obscured when whitish clouds form at its top, making it harder to see, New Scientist said.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, more than 1,000 times bigger than Earth. The planet is a giant ball of gas and liquid with little or no solid surface.

Wesley is already looking forward to seeing the southern band return, an event he hopes will happen this year or next.

"Jupiter is a joy to observe," he told Space.com. "You can be sure there is always something violent and interesting going on."

rccaulfield

Interesting- Thanks for posting!!

Hauk

I've been following this too. Nice read.

Tar.Aldarion

t4p