Jupiter Loses Belt

One of Jupiter’s south equatorial belts has faded from view in the last two weeks, giving amateur astronomers a much clearer view of the large planet’s lower half. Usually, fast-moving jet streams passing through Jupiter’s atmosphere create two visible belts.

Such a disappearance has happened before. One of Jupiter’s belts went missing in the 1970’s and again in the early 1990’s. It always seems to reappear, which is why experts are unconcerned about this recent episode.

3 Comments

  1. Wow! thats very cool! On 5/18/10 the space station went past Orlando from orbit. It took from 9:26pm to 9:28pm. It was double cool!

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