Posted on 07/20/2009 12:16:36 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Jupiter’s new black spot The black spot is at the top of this image.
I just saw on Twitter (hard to believe I ever thought Twitter was useless) that Jupiter is sporting a new black spot near its south pole. You can see it in the picture here (click to go to the source and embiggen).
People on Twitter (and on that site linked above) are speculating that this is the result of a large impact on Jupiter, similar to what happened in 1994 when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the big planet. But I think that’s premature; weather changes rapidly on Jupiter, and black spots have appeared before — see here and here. That doesn’t mean this isn’t an impact event (or, for that matter, the earlier events weren’t either) but it’s jumping the gun to call it an impact event before we get more observations. I will add that this new spot is indeed very dark, which means it’s pretty interesting no matter what it is!
. . . [Snip] . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
That could have really made a mess of things if it had hit earth.
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