November 25, 2010 - CNN (blog)
One of Jupiter's stripes that "disappeared" last spring is reappearing – and the disappearance was apparently an illusion created by Jupiter's atmosphere, NASA scientists said.
Scientists noticed earlier this year that the longstanding dark-brown stripe, called the South Equatorial Belt, had turned white, essentially disappearing. Researchers with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, the W.M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini Observatory telescope began studying the phenomenon and found the answer likely lies in a cloud deck made up of white ammonia ice that basically obscured the ring.
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