Over several months, astronomers, often led by amateur astronomers, have watched as a prominent feature of Jupiter's incredible atmosphere, the South Equatorial Belt, has faded nearly away. Now, according to amateur astronomer Christopher Go of The Philippines, the SEB is staging a comeback. Go has noted blobs appearing at the lattitude of the SEB that he thinks herald the return of the Belt.
Professional Jupiter watchers largely agree. The SEB has a history over the 400 years humans have observed Jupiter through increasingly good telescopes of fading in and out on occasion. There seems to be a rough pattern. So, when it faded this time, astronomers predicted the SEB would be back.
Astronomers can now better explain why the Belt fades. It doesn't disappear as much as it's obscured from outside observers by higher altitude clouds. When conditions high in the atmosphere change again, the darker clouds of the SEB reassert themselves.
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