Where the hell did Jupiter's Stripe go?

Wow...that's really interesting!

I want to know why it took an amateur to notice it.

The vast majority of such discoveries in astronomy are made by amateurs, FWIW.

My suspicion is because the professionals are mostly funded by grants and/or have other restrictions on their time and energy, so they don't really have the opportunity to look at other stuff that could be happening.

Also the vast majority of people staring at the sky are amateurs, so they do tend to notice stuff. Other fields of study are... um... not so readily available.

DeleyanLee said:

The vast majority of such discoveries in astronomy are made by amateurs, FWIW.

My suspicion is because the professionals are mostly funded by grants and/or have other restrictions on their time and energy, so they don't really have the opportunity to look at other stuff that could be happening.

Click to expand...

Professional astronomers are intricately tied to big expensive telescopes and long-term projects using them. Little of this telescope time is involved in planet-watching. Amateurs, many of whom are highly-educated and highly-skilled, fill in a lot of gaps, searching in particular for comets and in planet watching. If you read the whole story, it's clear that, A) Jupiter has just recently become visible again from Earth after passing in its orbit behind the sun, and B) that this event happens with some regularity, in something of a cycle. It isn't clearly understood what drives the changes, but Jupiter's atmosphere is highly dynamic, and changes in the cloud patterns aren't at all unusual.

caw

Wow, it does look strange.

Ferret,

Amateurs notice quite a few things like that. There are a lot of very dedicated and knowledgeable folks out there. This stuff is much more than a hobby to them.

I guess then, that all the professional astronomers are naval gazing.

They needed the elements in the stripe for more monoliths, obviously.

Or maybe stripes went out of season.

Jupiter looks much slimmer now.

Pssh, everyone knows it's lines of longitude that are slimming.

That's the ONE part of Armeggedon that didn't make me want to stab Michal Bay in the face with a ruler made of the solidified stupid that I pulled out my bellybutton while I was watching the televisual abortion. GOD I HATE THAT MOVIE!

Anywho, as for the stripe? Well, it was taken by the Titanian moon men.

We must send our finest marines to take it back.

I'm sure Zap Dodger is on the case.

dclary said:

Anyone?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37132414/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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The missing stripe is really just part of the larger question about how does Jupiter's atmosphere work. It's a very wierd planet, and the big spot strikes me as the wierdest feature. How can it be permanent, but still move around independently of the surface?

You can't make this stuff up, as they say.