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Impact On Jupiter Observed By Amateur Astronomers

Posted by kdawson on from the mere-pimple dept.

Omomyid and other readers send in the news that the bright flash of an impact on Jupiter has been observed — and caught on film — by amateur astronomers. That WMV is from amateur Christopher Go. Here's Anthony Wesley's video (45 MB AVI; the site is already overloaded). In the larger video you can see the impact lasting for a couple of seconds, and a good deal of structure is visible. The amateurs report that no dark debris field developed around the impact site in the time before it rotated out of sight; this may indicate that the impactor burned up high in Jupiter's atmosphere. Soon professional astronomers, and possibly Hubble, will be on the job.

7 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Re:wtf AGAIN by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, which was also first observed by same amateur astronmer (Anthony Wesley). Here was his post of the recent impact on CloudyNights

  2. Re:wtf AGAIN by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's no "wtf AGAIN" about this at all. Jupiter is the vacuum cleaner (no pun intended) of the solar system, and any object with a highly elliptic orbit will run a great risk of a Jovian ending.
    This is what allows us to not be wiped out by crashing comets and meteorites every few years.

    But, it's always good to see a public servant do its job.

  3. Chris Go is a Machine by burris · · Score: 2, Informative

    Chris Go is probably the world's premier amateur observer of Jupiter. He also discovered the change of Oval BA to a red color similar to the Great Red Spot.

    He lives in Cebu City, Philippines where he has excellent "seeing" most nights. "Seeing" is the term for how steady the atmosphere appears to be and is critical for getting good images of the planets.

  4. YouTube link... by alyawn · · Score: 4, Informative

    Umm... if you don't feel like waiting all day for the AVI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6LHljBKW8

  5. Re:wtf AGAIN by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Informative

    This makes me wonder... How long until Jupiter turns into a star itself?

    It won't. A gas giant is a star that never happened. There' no do-over whereby a gas giant might become a star subsequently.

    The mass difference between Jupiter and even the smallest star is still huge -- like, 50+ times what it currently weighs. I don't believe what you ask is possible.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. LOOP! by Itninja · · Score: 3, Informative

    This video is less than 2 seconds long! If you want to actually see anything...you will need to loop it. Not sure why the posted video wasn't looped already.

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  7. Re:wtf AGAIN by Stupid+McStupidson · · Score: 2, Informative

    That joke never gets old - ever.

    Fixed