E 'an inexplicable phenomenon, but once again lost one of Jupiter's equatorial bands, more precisely that which appears along the Great Red Spot. Recently emerged from the glare of the sun, while in conjunction with it, after three months of invisibility Jupiter has revealed a spectacular new.
Usually the planet shows two dark bands in its atmosphere, a northern hemisphere and one in the South (South Equatorial Belt, SEB). And it is the latter to have disappeared.
The journalist and amateur astronomer Bob King, nicknamed "Silent Bob", one of the first to observe the phenomenon, said that "Jupiter with a single equatorial band is very similar to Saturn when its rings are cut and therefore invisible for a time It does not seem even him.
In fact, to observe the images, Jupiter has changed. It is not the first time this happens: periodically, every 10 or 15 years Jupiter loses one of its bands and is still trying to figure out why. In fact, the equatorial belt is one of the most sensitive regions to climate change. There is talk of South Equatorial Belt Disturbance and its evolution is observable in near real time forming and disappearing within a few weeks. Therefore, it is expected that in a few weeks, a new equatorial zone will reappear first forming an oval white and then, gradually, it will extend all over the planet due to the repayment of darker material from other deeper layers of the atmosphere and the strong equatorial winds that stretch the material forming the various strips.
Jupiter without the bar equatorial south. Courtesy: Anthony Wesley http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1277734/Jupiter-loses-stripes-scientists-idea-why.html up.
Usually the planet shows two dark bands in its atmosphere, a northern hemisphere and one in the South (South Equatorial Belt, SEB). And it is the latter to have disappeared.
The journalist and amateur astronomer Bob King, nicknamed "Silent Bob", one of the first to observe the phenomenon, said that "Jupiter with a single equatorial band is very similar to Saturn when its rings are cut and therefore invisible for a time It does not seem even him.
In fact, to observe the images, Jupiter has changed. It is not the first time this happens: periodically, every 10 or 15 years Jupiter loses one of its bands and is still trying to figure out why. In fact, the equatorial belt is one of the most sensitive regions to climate change. There is talk of South Equatorial Belt Disturbance and its evolution is observable in near real time forming and disappearing within a few weeks. Therefore, it is expected that in a few weeks, a new equatorial zone will reappear first forming an oval white and then, gradually, it will extend all over the planet due to the repayment of darker material from other deeper layers of the atmosphere and the strong equatorial winds that stretch the material forming the various strips.
Jupiter without the bar equatorial south. Courtesy: Anthony Wesley http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1277734/Jupiter-loses-stripes-scientists-idea-why.html up.
Jupiter in its atmosphere shows a changing variety of details which, for convenience of study are divided into "bands" and "zones": the bands are the bands on the air, areas lighter ones. The shades from light yellow to dark brown. The formation of bands is associated with rapid rotation of the planet, which occurs in the forward direction and that lasts less than 10 hours: the shortest distance between all the planets. At the equator this translates into a rotation speed of 40,000 km / h. The continuity is interrupted by bands of clouds and irregular hours of bright spots dark hours. Some are short and vary greatly from day to day, suggesting a considerable turbulence in the external level. Other stains persist for a long time. Worthy of note is definitely the Great Red Spot, discovered by the Italian Gian Domenico Cassini in the seventeenth century, a cyclonic formation observed very well since the Voyager missions.
The origin of the color of the bands remains a mystery, although the cause is identified in the presence of complex chemistry that is the atmosphere. The tone is correlated with altitude: the formations are prone to blue to the deepest, followed by brown, white ones, and finally reddish, the highest.
Source: MailOnline: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1277734/Jupiter-loses-stripes-scientists-idea-why.html. The same article was published on GruppoLocale.it at: http://www.gruppolocale.it/?p=2268 .
Thanks Sabrina Masiero for atricolo.
