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Hubble Photographs Jupiter's New "Scar"

Posted by Soulskill on from the too-bad-cassini's-at-the-wrong-planet dept.

BearRanger writes "Calibration of new systems in the Hubble Space Telescope (installed in May by Shuttle Atlantis astronauts) were interrupted to take pictures of the new 'scar' near the south pole of Jupiter. The scar is believed to have been caused by the impact of an asteroid or small comet with the gas giant, which we discussed last Sunday. Hubble's return to service will be delayed by this interruption, but NASA says that rare events such as this warrant the delay. This is only the second recorded impact of an object with Jupiter."

22 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Cult Watch by WED+Fan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    After Art Bell hyped the Hale-Bopp as spaceship with Major Ed Dames, the Heaven's Gate cult offed themselves, thinking they were going home to their reward. I bet Dames and fellow snake oil salesman, Richard C. Hoagland are spinning this one for some sort of prophecy. Watch Hoagland tie his 19.5 Cosmic Math and Masonic rituals into it.

    If you are in a cult, now is the time to turn down the bowl of apple sauce and free pairs of Nike.

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
  2. Hubble seems really upgraded by ZosX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is a pretty great image. I don't remember shots of jupiter looking anywhere near this good before. I really can't wait to see what the new hubble is capable of producing.

    --
    zosxavius photography
    1. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by j-stroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The hi-res image shows a strong purple colour and a vivid blue bit on the top edge of the blackness. Is this real? Or is it a chromatic artifact from the calibration being unfinished?

      Have they detailed the calibration milestones?

    2. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by ZosX · · Score: 3, Informative

      looks like chromatic aberration to me. it is an optical problem and can be controlled with software, but pretty common on anything with any kind of optical magnification.

      --
      zosxavius photography
    3. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Galileo was EOL'ing anyway. But perhaps the New Horizons probe could be re-oriented? Not sure if that would give any useful additional data, however.

      -----

      As for the new Hubble camera - awesome! Now all we need to do is build a new Hubble (sorry, Webb, but your wavelengths are a little too limited) that can be serviced robotically so it no longer has to rely on shuttle missions for fixes and upgrades. Or maybe we can just launch a whole bunch of smaller, cheaper ones, that together act as a much larger telescope once properly processed. Then the only upgrade cost is in launching another one to complement the rest.

    4. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by camperdave · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is nothing compared to the shots from the Galileo spacecraft. We would be getting awesome shots of this impact if NASA hadn't suicided the probe in 2003.

      We may not have been able to see anything. Probes like Galileo have thrusters to move themselves about while in orbit. These thrusters use fuel. Galileo was launched in 1989, and swung by Venus, Earth (twice) and a couple of asteroids, using fuel for course corrections for each flyby. In 1995 it had to perform various orbital insertion burns to enter Jupiter's orbit, again using fuel. Galileo then changed orbit several times to visit the various moons of Jupiter, each thrust burning off more fuel. This lasted until 2003, when the propellant tanks were dry. There was just enough fuel to ditch the craft into Jupiter (so it wouldn't accidentally crash into Europa, and contaminate possible life there).

      So had it been left in orbit, with no manoeuvring fuel left with which to make course corrections or even re-orient the craft itself, it might possibly have survived the radiation and magnetic fields, the dozens of moons and moonlets, and the strong gravitational pull of Big J. But even if it survived to this day, without fuel, there is no attitude correction. It probably would have been pointing in the wrong direction.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    5. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by RealGrouchy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think that it's not just the image quality that's interesting. As a non-astro-anything-ist, I tend to think of space exploration as a really slow process, requiring years and years of bureaucratic approvals, budget overruns, then waiting months or years for the thing to get where it's going.

      For Hubble to simply stop everything to swing a look at Jupiter so soon after something newsworthy happens there is a reminder that the Hubble Space Telescope is really.fucking.cool.

      - RG>

      --
      Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
    6. Re:Hubble seems really upgraded by HonIsCool · · Score: 2, Informative

      Earth is much closer to Jupiter than the New Horizon is. Distance between Earth and Jupiter is about 4 AU while New Horizon is currently some 11 AU away from Jupiter.

      --
      "Give me six lines of C++ code written by the most competent programmer, and I will find enough in there to hang him."
  3. Star Wars anyone? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The new camera, installed by the astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis in May, is not yet fully calibrated. While it is possible to obtain celestial images, the camera's full power has yet to be seen."

    I don't know, but I am just imagining the same words being uttered on the Death Star, albeit in a slightly different context.

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  4. Size by gmerideth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Has there been any mention of the size of that scar? I know the red spot can hold 2-3 earths but what size is that scar?

    --
    Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
    1. Re:Size by ushering05401 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Original reports said it was the size of the pacific ocean. I am guessing that the size is changing pretty constantly, though.

    2. Re:Size by j-stroy · · Score: 4, Informative

      about the size of the Pacific Ocean, according to one astronomer's estimates.

    3. Re:Size by DaleGlass · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Now there's a reason to keep watch on asteroids, and to start coming up with ways of deflecting them, if there ever was one.

      If something like that hits our planet, things are going to be very unpleasant.

    4. Re:Size by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's already a wonderful way to deflect asteroids. It's called Jupiter.

  5. Re:Still justifying its existence by tuxgeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The resolution of the full size image of Hubble is incredible.
    I have always been a fan of the Hubble site and still remain today.

    I was heart broken, as well as many others, a few years back when bush wanted to scrap Hubble.
    I hope we learned from that near mistake and keep the thing going for years to come.

    It will only continue to provide new discoveries with each passing year.
    A very valuable asset to science.

    --
    "Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
  6. "Wide field" is a relative term... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The "wide field" (low-magnification) camera on Hubble gives a much narrower field and higher magnification than a sizable (10") amateur scope at its highest power.

    Hubble really, really rocks.

  7. Ominous... by TimHunter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, first there's a mysterious "scar" on Jupiter, and now the tides are inexplicably higher than normal. (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1620869.html). I don't know about anybody else, but I'm waiting for the aliens to land.

    1. Re:Ominous... by Boronx · · Score: 2, Funny

      So Flrknorpt is still out there.

      --
      Play Command HQ online
  8. Re:Dave what are you doing..... by SoundGuyNoise · · Score: 3, Funny

    My god, it's full of scars!

    --
    You never expect irony, do you?
    Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
    @iyfwrestling
  9. Jupiter is always in the right place by mister_playboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Jupiter's gravity well is far bigger in influence than all the other planets combined. Jupiter contains 72% of the total mass orbiting the Sun. Small objects are influenced profoundly by Jupiter's gravity no matter where it is in its orbit.

    As an example of its magnitude...Jupiter's barycenter of mass with the Sun actually lies at 1.020 Solar radii... not physically within the Sun itself.

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  10. Future probes by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will likely have a LOT more fuel and much longer life. I suspect that all future probes will be using ion thrusters combined with some long life nukes. VASMIR is going to be a major change for such probes even though I am not sure that it is the ideal choice for small thrusters. As it is, we will have much larger rockets that are capable of sending probes like New Horizon, Dawn etc. on a fast trip loaded with LOTS of fuel esp. if using these thrusters.

    In fact, if America was not hurting financially as bad as we are, I think that it would be useful to see us send a new set of voyagers using a ares V/Direct launcher, a great deal more nukes, and obviously a lot of fuel for a vasmir. We could get outside of the solar system in a relatively short period of time, while doing a LOT more exploration.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  11. Monoliths by dottyslashdottydot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A black expanding spot on Jupiter... where have I heard that before? I guess it's happening a year earlier than Arthur C. Clarke predicted?