Thursday, July 15, 2010

Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt is Gone!



I was looking at some of the amazing images on Brian Combs' web site and noticed that Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt is gone!  The article in Sky and Telescope mentions that this has happened recently, to a lesser degree.   I know that Jupiter's clouds change over the years, but didn't remember an equatorial belt completely disappearing.

One nice side effect is that the Great Red Spot is now easier to see, maybe for the first time since the 70s (when it was very red).

Article at Astronomy.com

Image linked to at Sky and Telescope