One of Jupiter's belts disappears

One of Jupiter

www.tgdaily.com

Jupiter just went through Superior Conjunction (i.e., went behind the Sun as seen from the Earth), so it has been out of view for a while. Now that has returned, it is different — the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) is missing. The SEB has about 10 times the surface area of the Earth, so this is not a small change.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 12-5-2010 by gopher mines]

This seems to be quite interesting. I guess it's happened before in the past, and Jupiter forms a new one. This time it happened while it was behind the sun, and they don't elude to why it loses the belt. Does anyone know why this happens? Kind of mind boggling. 10 times the surface area of the Earth I guess isn't that large considering Jupiter's size.

www.tgdaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, I don't know what to say.

Really?

It's not only one of the SEB belt that disspeared
The giant red spot also dissparered
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bdb6b321d372.jpg[/atsimg]

Look at the above giant red spot and look at the image on the OP's link.
It's not there!
Or maybe we are looking at the other side of Jupiter though

This is actually not a big deal, little do people know that the belt dissapears every 20 years. It should dissapear again in early 2030.
Every 20 years white clouds form on top of the SEB disallowing you from seeing the dark ones.

This can be cause of Jupiter's high rotation rate coupled with something happening behind the sun.

Maybe we will find out something in 2030.

why haven't they got satalites that stay in a solar stationary orbit to monitor our system from all points around the sun.
it makes sense to do this at our era.

reply to post by ModernAcademia

The giant red spot also dissparered

I noticed that too,

Or maybe we are looking at the other side of Jupiter though

And wondered that too.
www.sott.net...

I'm thinking jupiter is facing the opposite direction now and we can't see the spot. If the big red spot did disappear, THAT would be shattering to my brain.

reply to post by gopher mines


Agreed. Do you think the sun can absorb anything from Jupiter and that's the cause of the mysterious disappearance

Doesn't the storm travel around the planet, explaining why you might not be able to see it?

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
Agreed. Do you think the sun can absorb anything from Jupiter and that's the cause of the mysterious disappearance

It's not a dissapearance, it's lack of visibility because of white clouds

Originally posted by SpectreDC
Doesn't the storm travel around the planet, explaining why you might not be able to see it?

I believe one day in Jupiter is 10hrs or so, which means it rotates very fast
This might cause the storm to travel around the planet

But since Jupiter is not a perfect sphere, alot of it is flat because of rotation rate, how it would be evenly distributed is another issue.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Jupiter is a planet/star with many massive storms. Maybe we're seeing something new on the planet.

Well, according to the article:

It's not the first time the belt has disappeared - indeed, it happens every three to fifteen years. it last went missing in the early 1990s, and before that in 1973.

This time, though, the disappearance happened as the planet spent a three-month period behind the sun, so that on its emergence the transformation appears rather more sudden.

Over the next few months, we can expect to see a white spot appear which will gradually get stretched out by the planet's 350mph winds to form a new SEB.

Source
So it must be a normal occurance.


No big deal. Just another cycle of Jupiter.




[edit on 12-5-2010 by havok]

For those interested in a side-by-side comparison....

reply to post by Maxmars



To add to this problem with a "disappearing" Red spot...

Its rotation is the fastest of all solar system planets, rotating once on its axis every 10 hours. This means at the equator, Jupiter is moving at 22,000 mph, compared with 1,000 mph for the Earth.

So it spins alot faster than Earth.
According to my source, the planet takes 11.87 Earth years to orbit the Sun.
So with that amount of time and the speed...

9.925 Earth Hours per day on Jupiter

Jupiter
That's quite the quick planet.
Ughh...I hate math.
I don't think anyone knows which side is facing in that picture.
Too bad the article doesn't state it.

:p:



[edit on 12-5-2010 by havok]

I think the great spot is still there according to this image:

Originally posted by havok
No big deal. Just another cycle of Jupiter.

[edit on 12-5-2010 by havok]

Yes, these cycles happen around every 10 to 15 years. But
it sure picked a tumultuous period to do it in.

Every time I see a pictures like this of our beautiful solar system, it takes my breath away. And I'm very happy to be alive to see these wonders.
It is a beautiful planet

reply to post by Whateva69


Same here. Wait till we improve our technologies for space exploration and discover even more out there.

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


Ooh there’s the spot that ModernAcademia was missing.

Could the bands have come together instead of one disappearing? MaxMars link that shows the side by side comparison shows the one ringed Jupiter with its Northern ring looking darker than it previously did as if the two joined together. Since there are a few of you who say this has happened before has it been viewed happening or does it always do it on the other side of the sun? I'm trying to figure out if it's the planet, the sun or something beyond the sun causing this reaction.