Jupiter's Belt, Believed Missing Last Month, Has Been Found (Sort Of)
28 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope think they’ve found Jupiter’s missing cloud belt, hiding out behind a layer of ammonia clouds.
They also think they can explain the bright flash seen from Earth earlier this month: it was a meteor, though a small one that didn’t get very far.
The clouds that comprise the Southern Equatorial Belt were gone when Jupiter emerged from its hiding place behind the sun last month. Astronomers say they’re simply being obscured by white clouds of ammonia ice, which float at higher altitudes than the belt’s prominent brown clouds.
“Weather forecast for Jupiter’s Southern Equatorial Belt: cloudy with a chance of ammonia,” planetary scientist Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said Wednesday, according to Wired.
Images taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on June 7 found the white clouds, which should clear out in the next couple months, restoring Jupiter to its familiar striped state.The images were taken a few days after an amateur astronomer noticed a bright flash on the planet, indicating something had crashed into it. It takes a big object to shine brightly enough to be seen from Earth, about 480 million miles away. Now astronomers think it was a meteor that burned up high in the atmosphere.
The new Hubble images show no dark debris plume, which would have been present if the object exploded. That’s been observed twice before, when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter in July 1994, and when a large asteroid smacked the planet last summer.
[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/hubblescruti.jpg[/img]
[I]Jupiter From Hubble NASA scientists think Jupiter's missing southern belt is hiding out behind ammonia clouds. They also believe the mysterious flash of light spotted earlier this month was a meteor that did not penetrate deep enough into Jupiter's atmosphere for it to explode[/I][/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/jupiters-missing-belts-found-sort[/url]
Good. I liked that cloud.
Thank god, I was so close to killing myself
[QUOTE=Octo pie;22672854]Thank god, I was so close to killing myself[/QUOTE]
Awesome, it's not everyday I get to save a life :v:
[QUOTE=Octo pie;22672854]Thank god, I was so close to killing myself[/QUOTE]
Kill yourself anyways, we can't have Scorpious feeling good about himself. Who knows what the could lead to! :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;22673048]Kill yourself anyways, we can't have Scorpius feeling good about himself. Who knows what the could lead to! :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
You spelled my name wrong :saddowns:
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;22673079]You spelled my name wrong :saddowns:[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry. You know I'm just kidding though, you're a great poster. You deserve to be happy. :smile:
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;22673357]I'm sorry. You know I'm just kidding though, you're a great poster. You deserve to be happy. :smile:[/QUOTE]
:glomp:
Who is ever even going to notice that
[QUOTE=Dr Pepper;22673377]Who is ever even going to notice that[/QUOTE]
People who look a Jupiter for a living probably.
Jupiter looks so naked without that belt.
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;22673357]I'm sorry. You know I'm just kidding though, you're a great poster. You deserve to be happy. :smile:[/QUOTE]
I disagree
How do you lose an asteroid belt anyway?
[editline]12:31AM[/editline]
"Fuck, where's saturn? This isn't funny, I put it down RIGHT HERE just seconds ago!"
Was it around the waistband of Jupiter's trousers, by any chance?
...I'll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen.
Would you look at that.
[QUOTE=Elgar;22680338]Was it around the waistband of Jupiter's trousers, by any chance?
...I'll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen.[/QUOTE]
*Dies a little inside*
Guys, if jupiter didnt have it's belt then it's pants would fall down.
[QUOTE=CheeseMan;22680330]How do you lose an asteroid belt anyway?
[editline]12:31AM[/editline]
"Fuck, where's saturn? This isn't funny, I put it down RIGHT HERE just seconds ago!"[/QUOTE]
It's a cloud belt on the planet itself.
rtfa
I lost my belt once.
Turns out it was still on my other pair of jeans the whole time! How peculiar!
[QUOTE=altthe6th;22680300]I disagree[/QUOTE]
Go to hell. :saddowns:
Oh, wait. Refugee camp is close enough. Bye.
[QUOTE=Dr. Fishtastic;22688557]I lost my belt once.
Turns out it was still on my other pair of jeans the whole time! How peculiar![/QUOTE]
You too? Small world...
Well, smaller than Jupiter anyways.
Good.
Jupiter looks like Jupiter again :D
Now I wont hafto
:smithicide:
[quote=article]“Weather forecast for Jupiter’s Southern Equatorial Belt: cloudy with a chance of ammonia”[/quote]
Jupiter sounds like such a swell place to live.
[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;22683911]Guys, if jupiter didnt have it's belt then it's pants would fall down.[/QUOTE]
I like me some hot planet porn. Maybe Jupiter with Uranus, yeah...
"Ok Southern Equatorial Belt, it's your turn to count now."
Jupiter is going to be so embarrassed right now, and he thinks he is all big and mighty.
Thank god, I could never live knowing that Jupiter was missing a cloud belt.
I haven't slept in DAYS
I'm wearing a belt made of twine and brass.
And they didn't even have to pay the ransom.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.