Jump to content
Peikko

Now this is way cool

 Share

26 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

Huge comet punches an Earth-sized hole in Jupiter – and an amateur discovers it

• Astronomer alerts Nasa to cataclysmic collision

• Mystery object may have been over a mile wide

a-large-impact-on-Jupiter-001.jpg Image showing a large impact on Jupiter's south polar region captured on Monday, July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Photograph: NASA/AP

It was a cataclysmic event that underscored the enormous scale and terrible randomness of space: a comet, a planet and a spectacular collision that left Jupiter nursing a dark bruise roughly the size of the Earth.

The planet is thought to have been struck by a comet or asteroid – as big as a mile and a quarter in diameter – that vaporised on impact, creating huge waves in the gas giant's wispy surface.

The event only came to light when an Australian amateur astronomer noticed a dark smear on the planet's southern hemisphere while taking photographs through a telescope in his backyard.

Anthony Wesley, 44, a computer programmer who lives in a small town outside the capital, Canberra, had been spending a quiet night stargazing on Sunday, though he admits he almost took his eye off the ball at the crucial moment.

"I'm a keen golf watcher and unfortunately we [Australia] were being flogged in the cricket," he said. "I was imaging Jupiter until about midnight and seriously thought about packing up and going back to the house to watch the golf and the cricket. In the end I decided to just take a break and I went back to the house to watch Tom Watson almost make history [at the Open golf]. I came back down half an hour later and I could see this black mark had turned into view."

Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in California, received the first images from the telescope shortly after 3am on Monday. "We saw this impact scar with our first observation. It's the most exciting thing I've seen in observing these outer planets," he said.

The images revealed an extremely bright smear on Jupiter's surface, caused by sunlight reflecting off layers of particles and gas whipped up by the impact. "It's like throwing a stone into a pond. The hole vanishes very quickly, but you see this splashback of material," said Fletcher.

The scar is expected to last for around a week before high-speed winds smear it out across the surface.

Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system and more than 1,300 times larger than Earth. Its outer layer is hydrogen and helium, but the interior is extremely hot and dense. Planetary scientists suspect it may even have a solid core.

The closest the planet gets to Earth is 365m miles and for an impact to be visible at such distance means it must have been a cataclysmic event. "If this had happened on Earth it would be disastrous to say the least," Fletcher said.

Millions of meteorites pass through the Earth's atmosphere every day. Most are small and burn up as they streak across the sky, but scientists estimate tens of thousands fall to ground each year. The risk of a larger object striking Earth is almost impossible to quantify, scientists say. Space agencies monitor the inner solar system for bodies that may present a threat, but such objects are not tracked in the farther reaches of space.

Scientists suspect they will never know the exact size and speed of the object that collided with Jupiter because it was destroyed on impact. One theory is that the planet was hit by one of the many icy bodies that swirl around it.

Nasa is investigating how to use the collision to understand more about the planet. One idea is to watch how gases churned up by the impact spread in the next few days. That could reveal details about the planet's meteorology and the high-altitude jetstreams that separate the stripes visible on Jupiter's surface.

The discovery was made on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the 15th anniversary of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 colliding with Jupiter.

Wesley recorded the discovery in his observation log: "I noticed a dark spot rotating into view in Jupiter's south polar region [and] started to get curious," he said. "My next thought was that it must be either a dark moon ... or a moon shadow, but it was in the wrong place and the wrong size.

"By two o'clock I'd come back up to the house and was sending alerts to all the people I could think of that should be looking at this and especially the professional astronomers with specialised instruments for measuring this."

Link

Refusing to use the spellchick!

I have put you on ignore. No really, I have, but you are still ruining my enjoyment of this site. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Philippines
Timeline
Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Edited by alienlovechild

David & Lalai

th_ourweddingscrapbook-1.jpg

aneska1-3-1-1.gif

Greencard Received Date: July 3, 2009

Lifting of Conditions : March 18, 2011

I-751 Application Sent: April 23, 2011

Biometrics: June 9, 2011

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Brazil
Timeline
Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Dan: Well, our object collison budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-#### sky.

movie: armageddon

* ~ * Charles * ~ *
 

I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

 

USE THE REPORT BUTTON INSTEAD OF MESSAGING A MODERATOR!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Are you serious? Do you know how easy it is to miss this stuff? It's just cool that it was not only spotted, but that the amateur had the good sense to notify a bigger agency.

Refusing to use the spellchick!

I have put you on ignore. No really, I have, but you are still ruining my enjoyment of this site. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Philippines
Timeline
Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Are you serious? Do you know how easy it is to miss this stuff? It's just cool that it was not only spotted, but that the amateur had the good sense to notify a bigger agency.

Serious as the end of world. It's odd some private citizen sees something a big agency doesn't. One would think there's at least a single telescope trained on each of the planets in our solar system.

David & Lalai

th_ourweddingscrapbook-1.jpg

aneska1-3-1-1.gif

Greencard Received Date: July 3, 2009

Lifting of Conditions : March 18, 2011

I-751 Application Sent: April 23, 2011

Biometrics: June 9, 2011

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Are you serious? Do you know how easy it is to miss this stuff? It's just cool that it was not only spotted, but that the amateur had the good sense to notify a bigger agency.

Serious as the end of world. It's odd some private citizen sees something a big agency doesn't. One would think there's at least a single telescope trained on each of the planets in our solar system.

Get your tin hat out, you are going to need it.

Refusing to use the spellchick!

I have put you on ignore. No really, I have, but you are still ruining my enjoyment of this site. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: United Kingdom
Timeline
Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Are you serious? Do you know how easy it is to miss this stuff? It's just cool that it was not only spotted, but that the amateur had the good sense to notify a bigger agency.

Are you for real?

Easy to miss something as major as an Earth-sized comet colliding with a planet in our Solar system???

We're not talking stars that are light years away... Jupiter is only, what, half-an-hour/300-400 million miles away from Earth?

biden_pinhead.jpgspace.gifrolling-stones-american-flag-tongue.jpgspace.gifinside-geico.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wesley tipped off Nasa, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii confirmed a scar in the atmosphere near the planet's south pole.

Hello, NASA, this is Wesley and you missed a rock that could wiped out life on Earth.

Shoemaker Levy 9 was a real crowd pleaser by contrast.

Are you serious? Do you know how easy it is to miss this stuff? It's just cool that it was not only spotted, but that the amateur had the good sense to notify a bigger agency.

Are you for real?

Easy to miss something as major as an Earth-sized comet colliding with a planet in our Solar system???

We're not talking stars that are light years away... Jupiter is only, what, half-an-hour/300-400 million miles away from Earth?

I am for real, but apparently you are not. Yes, these things are not that easy to spot. Earth is not that big, particulary in comparison to Jupiter. Space is a big place, even our very own solar system - but, you know that really.

Refusing to use the spellchick!

I have put you on ignore. No really, I have, but you are still ruining my enjoyment of this site. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The comet itself though, was only a mile and a quarter in diameter, it was only the whipped up debris that was 'earth sized'

Refusing to use the spellchick!

I have put you on ignore. No really, I have, but you are still ruining my enjoyment of this site. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: United Kingdom
Timeline
The comet itself though, was only a mile and a quarter in diameter, it was only the whipped up debris that was 'earth sized'

Yeah, I realized that after I posted it.

biden_pinhead.jpgspace.gifrolling-stones-american-flag-tongue.jpgspace.gifinside-geico.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
- Back to Top -

Important Disclaimer: Please read carefully the Visajourney.com Terms of Service. If you do not agree to the Terms of Service you should not access or view any page (including this page) on VisaJourney.com. Answers and comments provided on Visajourney.com Forums are general information, and are not intended to substitute for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal, investment, accounting, or other professional advice. Visajourney.com does not endorse, and expressly disclaims liability for any product, manufacturer, distributor, service or service provider mentioned or any opinion expressed in answers or comments. VisaJourney.com does not condone immigration fraud in any way, shape or manner. VisaJourney.com recommends that if any member or user knows directly of someone involved in fraudulent or illegal activity, that they report such activity directly to the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423. All reported threads/posts containing reference to immigration fraud or illegal activities will be removed from this board. If you feel that you have found inappropriate content, please let us know by contacting us here with a url link to that content. Thank you.
×
×
  • Create New...