Something Big Hit Jupiter, And It Was Caught On Camera
Space debris hitting Jupiter is a relatively regular phenomenon, but an amateur astronomer in Brazil has now seemingly caught one of those strikes on camera, giving people a rare view of a stunning celestial phenomenon. The largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter orbits close to the main asteroid belt and has a powerful gravitational pull, both of which result in regular strikes by asteroids and other natural objects, often creating visible scars on the cloud-covered face of the planet.
One such incident happened back in 1994, when pieces of the shattered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, creating massive scars in the planet's thick atmosphere that lasted for months. Another notable impact happened in 2009, when the planet got slammed by yet another impactor which was initially thought to be a comet but turned out to be an asteroid. In both cases, the impacts broke the thick gaseous formations around Jupiter and helped scientists gain a better understanding of what lies beneath the atmospheric covering.
The latest impact is seemingly much smaller and is unlikely to help scientists gain any new insight into the massive planet. According to a tweet from astrophotographer Damian Peach, an hour after the impact, the atmosphere around the impact zone had no visible scarring. He further said that he believes the object was "probably too small to reach the deeper atmosphere". He also posted a stunning photo that seemingly shows Jupiter all healed up in the aftermath of the impact. While the object wasn't large enough to leave a scar, it was still big enough to create a bright flash visible all the way from Earth, making it quite significant.
Whether or not scientists can get more information about Jupiter following this impact, it is still a stunning video, especially coming from an amateur astronomy enthusiast. José Luis Pereira, a São Paulo native who captured the stunning strike, was obviously elated to have captured the impact on his camera. In a written statement to Space.com, he recounted what happened on Monday, September 13th, when he caught the incident on camera.
Jupiter may not be as fascinating as Mars, Europa, or even Saturn's satellite Titan, at least when it comes to hunting for life, but it has its own legions of fans among amateur astronomers. Pereira said he was aiming to photograph Jupiter and capture videos for the DeTeCt program, which is meant to spot impacts by space rocks on Jupiter. As it turned out, the very first video from that night captured the impact, something Pereira only learned the next morning when he checked the DeTeCt results. "The program ... verified that there was indeed a record in the first video of the night", he wrote about his experience.
The authenticity of the video has since been verified by Marc Delcroix of the French Astronomical Society, who also confirmed that the incident occurred Monday at 6:39 p.m. EDT (10:39 p.m. GMT). Whether it can help scientists get more information about Jupiter remains to be seen, but just seeing the stunning impact on video should be exciting enough for most space enthusiasts, and they have Pereira to thank for that.
Source: José Luis Pereira (via YouTube), Damian Peach (via Twitter), Space.com