Take It Off!: Jupiter Loses A Stripe

In an apparent attempt to seduce Neptune, Jupiter has taken off its bottoms to reveal a surprisingly featureless southern hemisphere. Yow yow, here's a space-buck!

Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band.

Jupiter's appearance is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere - one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.

But recent images taken by amateur astronomers show that the southern band - called the south equatorial belt - has disappeared.

The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun's glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen.