One of Jupiter’s two main cloud belts has completely disappeared, transforming the appearance of this giant planet of the solar system. “This is a great event,” said planetary scientist Glenn Orton of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA). “We are closely monitoring the situation andwe still don’t fully understand what’s going on“, has informed NASA.
Known as theSouth Equatorial Belt(SEB), thebrown cloud band is twice as wide as Earthand more than twenty times its circumference. The loss of such a huge “fringe” can be easily seen. “With any telescope, or even with large binoculars, the aspect of Jupiter has always included two broad equatorial belts,” explains amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Australia, discoverer of a comet that hit the planet in 2009. “Anyone who directs his telescope towards Jupiter at this time, however, you will see a planet with a single ribbon, a very strange sight. “
Glenn Orton thinks thatthe belt has not really disappeared, and that it may have been hidden behind high clouds. “On Earth, thin white clouds, cirrus clouds, are made of ice crystals. On Jupiter, these same kinds of clouds can form, but the crystals are made of ice crystals.ammonia(NH3) instead of water (H20). “I would love to send a probe there to find out what is really going on,” he said.
Jupiter’s atmosphere is a mysterious place that could be beneficial to explore.No one knows, for example, why the Great Red Spot is red, or what has sustained that raging storm for so many years. The theory does not explain why the twin equatorial bands are brown, or why one disappears, while the other remains. “We have onelong list of questions“, dice Orton.
It’s not the first time
This is not the first time the SEB has faded away. “The SEB fades at irregular intervals, most recently in 1973-75, 1989-90, 1993, 2007, 2010,” says John Rogers, director of the Jupiter section of the British Astronomical Association. “In 2007 the phenomenon ended quite soon, but in the other years, the SEB was almost erased, as it is today.”
The return of the SEB could be “dramatic”. According to Wesley, “The recovery will likely be sudden and dramatic, with clusters of planetary storms appearing in just one week.” In fact, says Orton, “anyone can be the first to see the return of the SEB.”
