Jupitor's stripe plays Hide and Seek game with Skywatchers!

Yeah. I am sure, I'm not kidding. But you have to believe that "One of the two equatorial belts, a thick stripe that encircles the Jupiter has played "hide-and-seek" game with astronomers and sky-watchers".

Figure showing the lower equatorial belt missing.(right)

Any amateur sky-watcher, if witnessed the giant planet through an astronomical telescope for the first time, could identity it only after confirming the presence of those two deep wide stripes that encircle the planet. They call it as "the equatorial belts". These belts usually contain fast moving jet stream of gases that fill up the planet's atmosphere. 

But what has happened on the previous may storms the sky-watchers and astronomers. Yup. One of the two dark stripes on the Jupiter was found missing!!!

Even a side-line sky watcher with a small telescope on his garden could distinguish the difference since, the stripe plays a significant role in the planet's physique. The absence of the stripe on the planet gave the a different view to the cosmologists.

"WTH?? Even we play x-box, play-station games and it's been ages we forgot the old hide and seek game", said the member of "Game-geek kids' association". :D

"So, my science teacher was correct. The Jupitor must really be very old. Now I can understand it from the fact that it plays 'hide-and-seek" games", says the head of the Game-geek kids' association. :D

Where it could have gone?? This perplexing question made most of the sky-watchers stir up their minds in search of the reason. But some geeky, well informative, intelligent, resourceful and clever Astrophysicists never showed any feeling of being surprised. "The planet has lost this stripe before, most recently in the 1970s and the early '90s. So far, the stripe has always reappeared", they said.

Whatever be it. But what is the reason behind this strange occurring? Scientists are  stumped for a complete explanation of this incident. Some amateur cosmologists put forth their view that the stripe, a part of the Jupiter's atmosphere could have moved somewhere. But that is not completely possible in the Jupiter.

Unlike the earth's atmosphere, Jupiter's atmosphere cannot move much distance, on account of the planet's iron clutching heavy gravity. The reason for this weird happening was anyway figured out after a month by Hubble Space Observatory.

"The Jupiter's atmosphere, the largest planetary atmosphere of the Solar System is mainly composed of molecular hydrogen and helium with a trace amount of ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and methane", wiki says.

The images captured and published by the Hubble Space Observatory reveals the mystery. "The stripes are hidden behind the white ammonia ice crystal clouds, which are present in the atmosphere obscuring the view", says Hubble Space scientists.

The team has also predicted that the cloud which is obscuring stripes should clear out in a couple of months. I'm sure their prediction will obsoletely be perfect.

Err..I want Hubble to set up a new crew for finding a better place to live! This old spoiled Earth is already stinking up, with all kinds of pollution and frantically increasing population. Seriously we need an alternate. Do you know any?? :D ??


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Data and image courtesy: wired science, wiki, national geographic news.