Jupter berfore and after "losing" a belt. Click for a little larger version. Credit: Anthony Wesley via Science@NASA

I got a heads up on this a bit over  week ago from a reader (THANKS JOE!), and waited for a little more information, finally Science@NASA put out an article by Dr. Tony Phillips.

I’ve put it “below the fold” or you can go to Science@NASA (linked below) to read it, either way check it out.

If the clouds would cooperate I should be able to get a look at the planet.  I have a though time with planetary photography so that is probably out, but the absence of the band will be obvious in the scope.  I do want to mention too, I stand in awe of Mr. Wesley’s ability!  One of the things I was wondering about was the Great Red Spot; thankfully it’s still visible, in fact it may stand out even more because it’s surrounded in white.  Here’s an image of the GRS surrounded by “white”.  (again from Mr. Wesley).

What do I think?  I think it’s just ammonia cirrus clouds as is mentioned it the article, the GRS in the image linked above looks like it has a haze over it too.  Kind of weird to think of  ammonia cirrus, but Jupiter (and Saturn) have what are known as reducing atmospheres dominated by Hydrogen Chemistry as opposed to our oxidizing atmosphere dominated by Oxygen chemistry.  Generally when we are looking at the belts and zones of Jupiter we’re looking at zones of pressure, in the case of the white zones we are looking at the tops of clouds associated with low pressure, while the dark areas are “warmer” and we are looking down into the atmosphere to see the darker colored clouds of complex organics and polysulfides.  Of course the clouds are hiding a mantle of metallic hydrogen…now THAT’S  weird.

Before I get all carried away, be sure to read the article below or at the source: Science@NASA:

May 20, 2010: In a development that has transformed the appearance of the solar system’s largest planet, one of Jupiter’s two main cloud belts has completely disappeared.

“This is a big event,” says planetary scientist Glenn Orton of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. “We’re monitoring the situation closely and do not yet fully understand what’s going on.”

Known as the South Equatorial Belt (SEB), the brown cloudy band is twice as wide as Earth and more than twenty times as long. The loss of such an enormous “stripe” can be seen with ease halfway across the solar system.

“In any size telescope, or even in large binoculars, Jupiter’s signature appearance has always included two broad equatorial belts,” says amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Australia. “I remember as a child seeing them through my small backyard refractor and it was unmistakable. Anyone who turns their telescope on Jupiter at the moment, however, will see a planet with only one belt–a very strange sight.”

Wesley is a veteran observer of Jupiter, famous for his discovery of a comet hitting the planet in 2009. Like many other astronomers, he noticed the belt fading late last year, “but I certainly didn’t expect to see it completely disappear,” he says. “Jupiter continues to surprise.”

Orton thinks the belt is not actually gone, but may be just hiding underneath some higher clouds.

“It’s possible,” he hypothesizes, “that some ‘ammonia cirrus’ has formed on top of the SEB, hiding the SEB from view.” On Earth, white wispy cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals. On Jupiter, the same sort of clouds can form, but the crystals are made of ammonia (NH3) instead of water (H20).

What would trigger such a broad outbreak of “ammonia cirrus”? Orton suspects that changes in global wind patterns have brought ammonia-rich material into the clear, cold zone above the SEB, setting the stage for formation of the high-altitude, icy clouds.

“I’d love to send a probe in there to find out what’s really going on.”

Indeed, Jupiter’s atmosphere is a mysterious place which would benefit from exploration. No one knows, for instance, why the Great Red Spot is red—or what has sustained the raging storm for so many years. Neither does theory explain why the twin equatorial belts are brown, nor why one should vanish while the other remains. “We have a long list of questions,” says Orton.

This isn’t the first time the SEB has faded out.

“The SEB fades at irregular intervals, most recently in 1973-75, 1989-90, 1993, 2007, 2010,” says John Rogers, director of the British Astronomical Association’s Jupiter Section. “The 2007 fading was terminated rather early, but in the other years the SEB was almost absent, as at present.”

The return of the SEB can be dramatic.

“We can look forward to a spectacular outburst of storms and vortices when the ‘SEB Revival’ begins,” says Rogers. “It always begins at a single point, and a disturbance spreads out rapidly around the planet from there, often becoming spectacular even for amateurs eyeballing the planet through medium-sized telescopes. However we can’t predict when or where it will start. On historical precedent it could be any time in the next 2 years. We hope it will be in the next few months so that everyone can get a good view.

“I’ll be watching every chance I get,” says Wesley. “The revival will likely be sudden and dramatic, with planet-circling groups of storms appearing over the space of just a week or so.”

Indeed, says Orton, “anyone could be the first to spot the return of the SEB.”

Jupiter shines in the eastern sky before dawn: sky map. Point your optics at the “morning star” and … is that really Jupiter? Happy hunting!