Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, which create the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia.
But the joint efforts between an amateur astronomer with his backyard telescope 🔭 and professional scientists with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), have now shown that they're actually made of something completely different 😲
Most likely, they are made of ammonium hydrosulphide mixed with smog, although vertical convection can sometimes bring ammonia ice clouds to the top.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2502a/?lang