Jupiter's Belt, Believed Missing Last Month, Has Been Found (Sort Of)
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...