Jupiter has lost one of its stripes...

[indy_85stariones]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1277734/Jupiter-loses-stripes-scientists-idea-why.html

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/12/article-1277734-098A07DA000005DC-847_964x444.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/12/article-1277734-098A07DA000005DC-847_964x444.jpg

 

Jupiter loses one of its stripes and scientists are stumped as to why

By Claire Bates

Last updated at 11:40 PM on 12th May 2010

 

Jupiter has lost one of its iconic red stripes and scientists are baffled as to why.

The largest planet in our solar system is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere, with one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.

However, the most recent images taken by amateur astronomers have revealed the lower stripe known as the Southern Equatorial Belt has disappeared leaving the southern half of the planet looking unusually bare.

The band was present in at the end of last year before Jupiter ducked behind the Sun on its orbit. However, when it emerged three months later the belt had disappeared.

 

Journalist and amateur astronomer Bob King, also known as Astro_Bob, was one of the first to note the strange phenomenon.

He said: 'Jupiter with only one belt is almost like seeing Saturn when its rings are edge-on and invisible for a time - it just doesn't look right.'

It is not the first time this unusual phenomenon has been noticed. Jupiter loses or regains one of its belts every ten of 15 years, although exactly why this happens is a mystery.

 

Enlarge Jupiter has a complex belt system

The planet is a giant ball of gas and liquid around 500million miles from the Sun. It's surface is composed of dense red, brown, yellow, and white clouds arranged in light-coloured areas called zones and darker regions called belts.

 

These clouds are created by chemicals that have formed at different heights. The highest white clouds in the zones are made of crystals of frozen ammonia. Darker, lower clouds are created from chemicals including sulphur and phosphorus. The clouds are blown into bands by 350mph winds caused by Jupiter's rapid rotation.

 

Noted Jupiter watcher Anthony Wesley, who spotted an impact spot on its surface last year, has tracked the disappearing belt from his back garden in Australia.

 

'It was obvious last year that it was fading. It was closely observed by anyone watching Jupiter,' he told The Planetary Society.

'There was a big rush on to find out what had changed once it came back into view.'

Mr Wesley said while it was a mystery as to what had caused the belt to fade, the most likely explanation was that it was linked to storm activity that preceded the change.

'The question now is when will the South Equatorial belt erupt back into activity and reappear?' Mr Wesley said.

The pattern for this happening is when a brilliant white spot forms in the southern zone. Gradually it will start to spout dark blobs of material which will be stretched by Jupiter's fierce winds into a new belt, and the planet will return to its familiar 'tyre track' appearance.

Jupiter will be closest to Earth on September 24, offering stargazers their best chance of seeing it without its stripe.

 

 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/while-hiding-behind-sun-jupiter-loses-one-its-belts

 

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/jupiter.jpg

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/jupiter.jpg

 

While Hiding Behind the Sun, Jupiter Loses One of its Belts By Clay Dillow

 

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).

 

Science, Clay Dillow, astornomy, jupiter, Jupiter's belts, orbit, planets, south equatorial beltBut due to the orbital dynamics of Earth and Jupiter, this particular disrobing was far more abrupt. Jupiter has been hanging out on the other side of the sun since late 2009, obscured from our view for the last few months. The belt disappeared while Jupiter was hiding, making for quite a drastic change in appearance when it recently re-emerged.

 

If 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

 

[JoeyLeet2]

I am no Jupiter expert, but I was under the impression that it was covered in storms/clouds? As in, the surface will constantly be changing?

[Metric-man]

I am no Jupiter expert, but I was under the impression that it was covered in storms/clouds? As in, the surface will constantly be changing?

 

Composition

 

Jupiter's upper atmosphere is composed of about 88–92% hydrogen and 8–12% helium by percent volume or fraction of gas molecules (see table to the right). Since a helium atom has about four times as much mass as a hydrogen atom, the composition changes when described as the proportion of mass contributed by different atoms. Thus the atmosphere is approximately 75% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with the remaining one percent of the mass consisting of other elements. The interior contains denser materials such that the distribution is roughly 71% hydrogen, 24% helium and 5% other elements by mass. The atmosphere contains trace amounts of methane, water vapor, ammonia, and silicon-based compounds. There are also traces of carbon, ethane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, oxygen, phosphine, and sulfur. The outermost layer of the atmosphere contains crystals of frozen ammonia.[15][16] Through infrared and ultraviolet measurements, trace amounts of benzene and other hydrocarbons have also been found.[17]

 

The atmospheric proportions of hydrogen and helium are very close to the theoretical composition of the primordial solar nebula. However, neon in the upper atmosphere only consists of 20 parts per million by mass, which is about a tenth as abundant as in the Sun.[18] Helium is also depleted, although only to about 80% of the Sun's helium composition. This depletion may be a result of precipitation of these elements into the interior of the planet.[19] Abundances of heavier inert gases in Jupiter's atmosphere are about two to three times that of the sun.

 

Based on spectroscopy, Saturn is thought to be similar in composition to Jupiter, but the other gas giants Uranus and Neptune have relatively much less hydrogen and helium.[20] However, because of the lack of atmospheric entry probes, high quality abundance numbers of the heavier elements are lacking for the outer planets beyond Jupiter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

 

It has of recent my guessstimation that it would ignite into a star under the right conditions because of all the flammable gasses of it's composition.

[ucw458]

Aliens are finally cleaning the place up.

[TheWormForEver]

Whoa, that's impressive...

[89PalermoSHP]

thats photoshopped

[BrazilBoy]

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/images/parrot.gif

http://forgottenliberty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Bush_Fault.gif

[jolyrgr]

It is global warming......they need to quit burning so many fossil fuels.

 

JR

[IntercooledFlatty]

actually, the ring moved. it now located around uranus

[lmwii]

stars don't 'ignite' because of flammable gases like you might think of in a fire. when a body's mass is great enough it squeezes the hydrogen atoms together and they fuse into helium. this fusion is the source of the heat and light of stars.

[Komeuppance]

I was fairly sure UK's Daily Mail was notorious for making things up. AKA Daily Fail...

 

Waiting for a more credible source...

 

-Robert

[ucw458]

stars don't 'ignite' because of flammable gases like you might think of in a fire. when a body's mass is great enough it squeezes the hydrogen atoms together and they fuse into helium. this fusion is the source of the heat and light of stars.

 

In other words it's nuclear fusion, not a ball of fire.

 

Basically Doc brown went back in time and added one of these,

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/3179332336_af74e4db3a.jpg

Edited May 14, 2010 by ucw458

[conquest707]

i blame the communists

[strang3majik]

question...that storm has been around a while as well.

 

Where'd that go?

 

I'm assuming the planet is facing the other direction??? lol

 

and...Chuck Norris just wanted a change of scenery.

[89PalermoSHP]

actually, the ring moved. it now located around uranus

 

no, its located around uranus.

[Metric-man]

stars don't 'ignite' because of flammable gases like you might think of in a fire. when a body's mass is great enough it squeezes the hydrogen atoms together and they fuse into helium. this fusion is the source of the heat and light of stars.

 

So like a diesel engine that is under such high compression ..in that case by your rules,

I can say these aren't really ignited either...?

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/images-3/california-wildfire-5.jpg

[lmwii]

it's not by my rules, lol. oxidation, aka fire, and nuclear fusion are not the same process. diesel is ignited by the heat of compression, but it is fire, not fusion.

 

you need to do some reading:

 

fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.[1] Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not considered to be part of this definition.

 

nuclear fusion

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple atomic nuclei join together to form a single heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy. Large scale fusion processes, involving many atoms fusing at once, must occur in matter which is at very high densities.

[psu_Crash]

stars don't 'ignite' because of flammable gases like you might think of in a fire. when a body's mass is great enough it squeezes the hydrogen atoms together and they fuse into helium. this fusion is the source of the heat and light of stars.

 

Damn, you beat me to it.

[jszucs]

just looks like the two bands combined. The north one single looks wider and more dense

[BrazilBoy]

Ok I am tired of this thread I just went outside looked up at it...Yup still looks the same to me...end of topic...

[Metric-man]

it's not by my rules, lol..

 

Your explanation is too complicated I like mine,

 

remember... K.I.S.S.

 

I looked it up, you haven't denied or proven my description as being incorrect only yours being more detailed or precise..

so it still ignites in laymen terms.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignite

Edited May 16, 2010 by starion_cult

[lmwii]

enjoy your bliss.

 

edit: also, i never said it didn't ignite, i said it had nothing to do with flammability.

Edited May 17, 2010 by lmwii