Was There Really a Recent Impact on Jupiter?
Department:
Jupiter
Teaser:
"On June 3rd, amateur astronomers were startled by a bright flash of light on Jupiter. It appeared to be an impact event--a comet or asteroid hitting the planet's cloudtops. Curiously, though, the "impact" has left no obvious debris. Was it really an impact--or something else?"
Source:
Science@NASA Headline News Download time: Jun 13 2010 9:13 AM ET
On June 3rd, 2010, something hit Jupiter. A comet or asteroid descended from the black of space, struck the planet's cloudtops, and disintegrated, producing a flash of light so bright it was visible in backyard telescopes on Earth. Soon, observers around the world were training their optics on the impact site, waiting to monitor the cindery cloud of debris which always seems to accompany a strike of this kind.
They're still waiting.
"It's as if Jupiter just swallowed the thing whole," says Anthony Wesley of Australia, one of two amateur astronomers who recorded the initial flash. The other, Christopher Go of the Philippines, says "it was thrilling to see the impact, but the absence of any visible debris has got us scratching our heads."
Indeed, it is a bit of a puzzle. "We've seen things hit Jupiter before," says planetary scientist Glenn Orton of JPL, "and the flash of impact has always been followed by some kind of debris."…
See Science@NASA Headline News for links to further info.
