Jupiter's lost cloud belt may be coming back.

One of the gas giant's characteristic red stripes, the South Equatorial Belt, faded late in 2009 and had vanished completely by early May, 2010. The band had waned and returned several times in the past, astronomers noted, and kept an eye out for its return.

A few amateur astronomers just spotted signs of a return. The image above, captured Nov. 9 by amateur astronomer Christopher Go in the Phillipines, shows a white plume piercing the cloud tops where the belt belongs.

This tiny spot, called an outbreak, is actually a high altitude cloud. These spots are what makes the South Equatorial Band red, Go told Wired.com in an email. Small disturbances like this one are an omen of more spots and swirls to come, ultimately reviving the great brown stripe.

Other astronomers followed up in infrared wavelengths (below), which show the spot much more clearly.

"The spot was pretty small and unimpressive in normal light," said astrophotographer Don Parker of Florida. "When I started imaging in the methane band, the images that appeared on my monitor blew me away! The spot was big and brilliant. This indicated that it had a very high altitude above Jupiter's cloud deck and was a powerful towering convection plume – indeed something special."

As of Nov. 11, the eruption is the single brightest spot on Jupiter in all wavelengths.

"Will this outbreak fully revive the SEB? Time will tell," Go said. "That is why I am encouraging other observers to keep an eye of this outbreak."

If you catch any activity in Jupiter's cloud belt, send us your photos!

Via Spaceweather.com

Image: 1) Christopher Go. 2) Don Parker. Note that the planet is upside-down, as it would appear through a telescope. The south pole is at the top of the image, and the bright spot is to the left.

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