Jupiter Struck by Object, NASA Images Confirm

Foxnews ^ | 7/21/2009 | Staff

[Red in Blue PA]

PASADENA, California — A large comet or asteroid has slammed into Jupiter, creating an impact site the size of Earth, pictures by an Australian amateur astronomer show.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed the discovery using its large infrared telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, said computer programer Anthony Wesley, 44, who discovered the impact zone while stargazing at home.

News of Wesley's find on a backyard 14.5-inch reflecting telescope has stunned the astronomy world, with scientists saying the impact will last only days more.

Wesley said it took him 30 minutes to realize a dark spot rotating in Jupiter's clouds on July 19 was actually the first impact seen by astronomers since a comet collided with the giant planet in July 1994.

[rom]

That’s pretty much the conclusion one is left with!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I'm going with the "no longer a planet" defense, but you have an excellent point:

Though the sum of the masses of Pluto and Charon is known pretty well (it can be determined from careful measurements of the period and radius of Charon's orbit and basic physics) the individual masses of Pluto and Charon are difficult to determine because that requires determining their mutual motions around the center of mass of the system which requires much finer measurements -- they're so small and far away that even HST has difficulty. The ratio of their masses is probably somewhere between 0.084 and 0.157; more observations are underway but we won't get really accurate data until a spacecraft is sent.

[dead]

computer programer Anthony Wesley, 44, who discovered the impact zone while stargazing at home.

That story is a little too convenient. I suspect he had something to do with it.

[ResponseAbility]

I’ll never forget being up high in the mountains and seeing Comet Hyakutake’s tail across half of the sky.

[MrB]

Took me a bit to get what you meant, then.. LIS. Laughing InSide, where it counts.

[Larry Lucido]

Jupiter is our Solar System’s great protector. It has been sucking up junk since it became a planet.

Whose turn is it to empty it out?

[dead]

It’s happen before, of course. The crater is called the Pacific Ocean and the residual debris is called the Moon.

I'd always heard that the earth collision that produced the moon is believed to have liquified the earth and the colliding body, allowing both the moon and the earth to coalesce into the round bodies we see today.

How could a liquifying event leave a crater?

[spectre]

It's just those darn North Koreans testing their missiles again.

sw

[Huebolt]

"It was the NORTH KOREAN'S new Mile Long Dong missile!"

You mean the one that flew into Uranus? :)

No, Obama's. He has so many, he hasn't noticed one more though. He bowed to the Saudi king for a reason...

[ResponseAbility]

****How could a liquifying event leave a crater?****

Homer: That’s not a crater, that’s Earth’s belly button.

[ResponseAbility]

LOL, “You say Uranus I say Urectum, let’s call the hole thing off”

[ASOC]

More than a few folks keeping an eye out to catch what they can

http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/

http://asteroid.lowell.edu/asteroid/loneos/loneos.html

http://asteroid.lowell.edu/asteroid/loneos/loneos.html

and on and on. Quite the group.

It would appear that Jupiter lacks such groups....

[Larry Lucido]

“He who spotted it, zotted it.”

[Alberta's Child]

Good point. Pluto is such an odd case that it may not even be a “planet” in any sense of the word.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.

Douglas Adams

[McGruff]

Hope they have Universal Health Care on Jupiter.

[RobRoy]

It has been suggested that God put the planets around us the way he did to act as a “space crap” filter, basically pulling stuff in and taking the hit to keep things relatively clean for us.

So far, during recorded history, it’s pretty effective.

[Alberta's Child]

And yet Hyakutake was actually a pretty small comet, if I remember correctly. I think it was extremely bright because it came so close to the earth.

There are some times when I wish I lived in the Southern Hemisphere. The spectacular display of Comet McNaught in 2007 would have been amazing to see:

[McGruff]

computer programer Anthony Wesley, 44, who discovered the impact zone while stargazing at home.

That story is a little too convenient. I suspect he had something to do with it.

Oh sure. Blame the software first.

[ResponseAbility]

****The spectacular display of Comet McNaught in 2007 would have been amazing to see:****

Awesome picture.