Something Big Just Slammed Into Jupiter

gizmodo ^ | 08/09/2019 | George Dvorsky

[BenLurkin]

An amateur astronomer in Texas captured a rare sight earlier this week when an apparent meteor slammed into Jupiter’s thick upper atmosphere.

On Wednesday, amateur astronomer Ethan Chappel was on the lookout for Perseid meteors, reports ScienceAlert. But his telescope was trained on Jupiter with the camera running. Later, after feeding the data into a software program designed to detect impact flashes, Chappel was alerted to the event.

Looking at the footage, Chappel saw a brief but discernible flash along the western portion of Jupiter’s Southern Equatorial Belt, or SEB.

Later that day, Chappel announced his discovery in a tweet: “Imaged Jupiter tonight. Looks awfully like an impact flash in the SEB.” Chappel released a sharper version of the impact on Thursday, along with a colorized view of the apparent impact.

Imafe: Chappel Astro/Gizmodo

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Sounds awesome! :)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. When the moooooooon is in the seventh house...

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[BatGuano]

That must be “Flash” Gordon!

[DoodleBob]

I'd like to ask you one last time. Conduct yourselves with the utmost maturity.

[Abathar]

Elevation good, 9 clicks to the right...