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Something May Have Just Hit Jupiter

Posted by kdawson on from the jumbo-size-clearasil dept.

The blog of Anthony Wesley, an Australian amateur astronomer, has what may be the first photos of a recent comet or asteroid impact on Jupiter, near the south pole. These photos are 11 hours old. The ones at the bottom of the page show three small dark spots in addition to the main dark mark. The Bad Astronomy blog picked up the story a few hours later — but cautions that what we're seeing may not be an impact event. This is all reminiscent of the closely watched impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter in 1994.

8 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Or may not have by intx13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An amateur astronomer puts up pictures on his blog and we're comparing it to Shoemaker-Levy?

    Bad Astronomy says "it's jumping the gun to call it an impact event before we get more observations". I've got an idea for the next Slashdot article: "Asteroid heading towards earth - or maybe just spot on lense".

    1. Re:Or may not have by init100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Many people seem to think that amateur is a synonym for incompetent.

    2. Re:Or may not have by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's worse, many people seem to think that professional is a synonym for competent.

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  2. Re:Yep, that's why God put em there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, but in your rush to denigrate people who believe differently than yourself you did.

  3. Something May Have Just Hit Jupiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Eeriest Slashdot story title of the year?

  4. Re:This should be modded "Troll" ... by Draek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So? here at Slashdot we make jokes of murderers, pedophiles, recently deceased people, people with disabilities, etc. And if we don't care about *those*, I don't see why we'd care about simple domestic abuse.

    Plus, it provides some much-needed relief from the endless 2010 allusions being posted here.

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  5. Re:thats nice and all by DigiShaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've often heard Jupiter called the "vacuum cleaner" of space in that it sucks up foreign objects that stray into our solar system. Be thankful we have this planet among us. It's sorta like our protector.

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  6. Re:Yep, that's why God put em there by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He was denigrating a notion, not a group of people. The fact that there exist some people who take criticism of their worldview as a personal attack is a matter for those particular people to come to terms with.

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