"Potential Impact On Saturn": Astronomers Appeal For Help As Video Appears To Show Object Hitting The Gas Giant

IFLScience ^ | July 7, 2025 | James Felton

[SunkenCiv]

Astronomers at the Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) are appealing for help, after an image taken by NASA's Mario Rana appears to show an object slamming into Saturn.

Saturn, like Jupiter, is a gas giant. With their impressive masses, you would expect these giants to attract their share of asteroid impacts. Unlike terrestrial planets, which are usually left with an obvious crater after impact, on gas giants, it is not entirely obvious. With outer layers primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, any trace of an impact can disappear.

Astronomers have attempted to model how many impacts take place on the gas giant. One recent study put the number of impacts by objects over 1 kilometer at around 3.2 × 10−3 yr−1 ( 0.0032 per year, or 1 every 3,125 years). Smaller impacts are thought to be more common, with Cassini data showing that impacts can leave telltale ripples in Saturn's rings...

Despite these impacts being relatively common – around 8,000 meteorites impact Earth every year – we have never observed an object hitting Saturn. Until, just maybe, now. On Saturday, July 5, NASA's Mario Rana captured a potential impact, which has now been reported to the Planetary Virtual Observatory & Laboratory (PVOL).

The bright flash highlighted in the left side of the picture has the appearance of an impact event. Objects have been observed slamming into Jupiter every now and then, producing similar flashes...

Any astronomers who have observations from this time are urged to contact Delcroix to submit their data. Hopefully, soon we will have further observations from Saturday, helping us to confirm whether we have seen our first ever impact with gas giant Saturn.

[telescope115]

Yup

[SunkenCiv]

This got me thinking, I guessed right but A) couldn’t remember one of names, but knew it was him, if that makes sense, and B) had to look it up to be sure.

Two astronauts flew twice to the Moon but only landed once:

John W. Young (Apollo 10, Apollo 16)
Eugene A. Cernan (Apollo 10, Apollo 17)

This I didn’t know; Dave Scott flew twice on Apollo, the first one though was an Earth-orbital mission to test systems. Second mission, he walked there. The Hadley Rille mission is one of two I have a vivid memory of watching (the other being Apollo 11, duh) probably because it was August and I could just sit around and watch the TV coverage. There was a lot of interest in the Grand Rapids market after it faded out a lot in the US, possibly because Roger B. Chaffee of GR had died in the Apollo 1 fire.

David R. Scott (Apollo 9, Apollo 15)