Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone check out Jupiter in their telescope recently? The solar system’s largest planet seems to have lost its Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB), after a several month period where the planet remained hidden behind the sun, Popular Science reports.

This actually isn’t unprecedented; Jupiter’s bands are actually very complex cloud systems made up of ammonia ice, sulfur, and phosphorous, and are constantly changing and shifting appearance. Usually it’s not to this extent, though; the last two times this happened were 1973 and in the early 1990s, the report said.

The difference here is that it happened much more quickly this time, as the comparison photo indicates (pictured). The article said that soon–sometime within the next few weeks to a few months–a bright white spot will appear and begin “seeding the former belt with dark blobs.” Eventually, the SEB will return to its former appearance–or at least we think it will.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab announced that it is working on a data transmission problem with Voyager 2. JPL said that the issue appears to be related to the flight data system, which formats data before sending it back to Earth. Signals currently take about 13 hours to travel each way between the spacecraft and our planet.

“Voyager 2’s initial mission was a four-year journey to Saturn, but it is still returning data 33 years later,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. “It has already given us remarkable views of Uranus and Neptune, planets we had never seen close-up before. We will know soon what it will take for it to continue its epic journey of discovery.”

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, about two weeks before its twin Voyager 1 spacecraft. The two craft are currently the most distant human-made objects, and are out at the edge of the solar system. Mission managers expect Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to exit our system and enter interstellar space in about five years.

We’ve already heard of expeditions in Antarctica to simulate conditions on other planets, but this idea reaches new depths.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston announced Wednesday that it will again participate in the NASA Extreme Environment Missions Operation (NEEMO) mission.

The mission will use the ocean’s floor as a way to simulate the low-gravity conditions astronauts would experience on another planet’s surface. The idea is to learn how a future crew might interact with the lander, rover, robotic arms, and other gear.

The 14-day undersea expedition will take place aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aquarius Underwater Laboratory near Key Largo. In addition, teachers and students in the Middle School Aerospace Scholars program on May 11th will participate in an event to navigate a rover along a predetermined course on the ocean floor.

NASA scientists announced that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an infrared telescope that can look further back in the universe’s history than ever before, has officially met all science and engineering requirements ahead of its upcoming mission, Space.com reports.

The $5 billion JWST is a sort-of-successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, but its focus on the infrared spectrum means we’ll likely see less of the gorgeous astrophotography we’ve become used to from Hubble, at least from this spacecraft.

That said, the JWST can observe older light, see deeper into the universe, and provide important clues about the Big Bang and the evolution of our own solar system, the report said–not to mention the formation of star systems capable of supporting extraterrestrial life.

The JWST is scheduled to enter hardware production in 2012 ahead of its planned launch in 2014.

And here you thought the D.C. area “snowmageddon” was big–this one is about five times its size.

NASA astronomers and amateur skywatchers are currently transfixed by a massive blizzard raging on Saturn, one that’s large enough to see from Earth, Space.com reports.

The good news is that we can get much more detail about the storm, courtesy of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Saturn. However, NASA was first tipped off by amateur astronomers here on Earth, the report said.

Part of the problem is that Cassini’s imaging and spectrometer observations are locked in place months in advance, while the storm may appear and disappear in a matter of weeks. Cassini has other instruments dedicated to gathering weather-related data just like this, though, and is currently having a field day with the storm.