Posted 05.12.2010 at 3:30 pm
15 Comments
Jupiter, Before and After
Anthony Wesley
The science world is upside down this afternoon. First North Korea announces it has cracked the nut on nuclear fusion. Now Jupiter has lost one of its belts, specifically the Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB) which figures prominently in Jupiter’s overall appearance.
Astronomers aren't exactly sure why this happens, but the flightiness of the SEB is actually not unprecedented. Jupiter’s bands are actually clouds, with the SEB being primarily made up of ammonia ice, sulfur, and phosphorous hovering above the planet’s toxic, gaseous surface. The belt took leaves of absence in both the early 1990s and in 1973, so its disappearance now, if anything, is a bit overdue (it seems to be on a roughly 15-year cycle).
Related Articles
 | Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Redux |
 | Is it Possible for a Spacecraft to Fly Straight Through Jupiter? |
| A Solar System Like Ours? |
Tags
Science, Clay Dillow, astornomy, jupiter, Jupiter's belts, orbit, planets, south equatorial beltIf this occurrence follows the precedent of the others, the planet should maintain its appearance for another few weeks – possibly even months – at which point a bright white spot will appear and begin seeding the former belt with dark blobs, eventually restoring the SEB to its former dark color. And if that doesn’t happen? Well, that’s not really a problem. Jupiter has looked more or less the same as long as we’ve known her, so if she wants to shake things up a bit, that’s her prerogative.
For kicks, we’ve include the original footage from the Voyager flyby below, where you can get a good look at just how lively Jupiter’s atmosphere can be.
15 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2013: American Energy Independence
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- Dear Schools: Stop Treating Science-Curious Kids Like Criminals
- State Drops Charges Against High School Student Arrested For Science Experiment
- Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo
- Mexican Cartels Control Pot Farms As Far North As Washington State
- Buzz Aldrin Wants To Send People On A One-Way Trip To Mars
- Giving White People The Illusion Of Darker Skin Makes Them Less Racist
- Space Tourism's Black Carbon Problem
- What Modern Humans Can Learn From The Neanderthals' Extinction
- Untouched For The Last Billion Years, Water In Canadian Mine Holds Ingredients For Life
- How Do You Make A Painkiller Addiction-Proof?
Most Emailed
Science
- The Week In Numbers: Fire In Space, The First Cloned Human Embryo, And More
- 8 Of The Year's Most Oddly Gorgeous Science Images
- 8 Of The Year's Most Oddly Gorgeous Science Images
- A Zombie Worm And Other Amazing Images From This Week
- A Zombie Worm And Other Amazing Images From This Week
- Cambrian Fossil With Scissor-Like Claws Is Named For Johnny Depp
- First American Mission To Sample An Asteroid Gets Green Light
- High School Students Devise More Accurate Climate Modeling Method
- Wanna Know How You're Going To Survive The Apocalypse?
- This Bacterium Can Do Division, Compute Logarithms And Take Square Roots
Most Viewed
Science
- The Week In Numbers: Fire In Space, The First Cloned Human Embryo, And More
- 8 Of The Year's Most Oddly Gorgeous Science Images
- 8 Of The Year's Most Oddly Gorgeous Science Images
- A Zombie Worm And Other Amazing Images From This Week
- A Zombie Worm And Other Amazing Images From This Week
- Cambrian Fossil With Scissor-Like Claws Is Named For Johnny Depp
- First American Mission To Sample An Asteroid Gets Green Light
- High School Students Devise More Accurate Climate Modeling Method
- Wanna Know How You're Going To Survive The Apocalypse?
- This Bacterium Can Do Division, Compute Logarithms And Take Square Roots
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Is the The Great Spot still there?
@blackspike2710 Thats what I thought at first but the Great Red Spot has been around for some 300 years. I think there would be a bit more hubbub if it had vanished. My guess is the photo just shows the other side of juipiter.
global warming
Oh my gosh! That video shows that the right side of Jupiter disappears and reappears too!
@ste3v3 i lol'd
You GO, Jupiter, with your new 'do! Shake things up!
@ste3v3 That made my day. :)
So what?
Give a planet a break.
Gains a little weight, takes off a belt and unbuttons its pants.
Couple laps around the Sun will take it back off.
Okay you are a weird bunch no common sense of science. You are funny little specimens you are.
@ste3v3 nice man, total pwn with that one. Made my day.
It is very intriguing but may be due to some unknown phenomena such as the angle of site from earth may show a higher reflectivity of light as it is more tilted upwards from our vantage point, if only Galileo was still alive today then we would have a second view point.
Another reason may be that the Jovian very strong magnetic field may have temporally changed positions causing disturbances in the upper atmosphere around the lower belted area.
Ha, yet another idea is that it is finally going to go solar on us as predicted in the "2010 Space Odyssey," after all it is now 2010...
Ron Bennett
First we have climate change on earth and now Jupiter? This provides me with the scientific evidence I need prove that climate change is in fact caused by sun spots or gravity waves or something. :)
@ste3v3 -- beat me to it rofl
Comme on ! It's so obvious !!! Jupiter had sex behind the Sun and dressed up in a hurry !
Man you people are just downright weird