The changes are caused by turbulence and especially high-altitude winds in Jupiter's atmosphere. Polar winds blowing 25 m/s and faster could stretch the cloud all the way around Jupiter's south pole in the weeks ahead. Whether such a stretched-out cloud will be visible in small telescopes remains to be seen.
Amateur astronomers are encouraged to continue monitoring. The cloud is located near Jupiter's System II longitude 210°. For the predicted times when it will cross the planet's central meridian, add 2 hours and 6 minutes to Sky and Telescope's predicted transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot. [sky map]
more images: from Giovanni Coltro of Pesaro, Italy; from Romulo Liporaci of Maracaibo, Venezuela; from Sid Leach of Scottsdale, Arizona; from Tamas Ladanyi of Bakonykoppany, Hungary; from Efrain Morales Rivera of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; from Andreas Murner of Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany; from John Chumack of Dayton, Ohio USA
