Explosion on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers

Amateur astronomer George Hall captured this image of an apparent impact on Jupiter while recording video telescope observations of the planet on Sept. 10, 2012, from Dallas Texas.
CREDIT: George Hall/George's Astrophotography 

An apparent impact on Jupiter early Monday (Sept. 10) created a fireball on the planet so large and bright that amateur astronomers on Earth spotted the flash.

The latest impact on Jupiter was first reported by amateur astronomer Dan Peterson of Racine, Wisc., who was observing the largest planet in our solar system when the event occurred, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which tracks space weather and night sky events.

"It was a bright flash that lasted only 1.5 – 2 seconds," Peterson told Spaceweather.com. Peterson used a Meade 12-inch LX200GPS telescope to observe the event, which occurred near the southern edge of Jupiter's northern equatorial belt of clouds.  

In a report posted on the Cloudy Nights forum, Peterson said it wasn't clear if the impact would leave a scar on Jupiter much like those seen in 1994, when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke into pieces and peppered the planet with debris, creating visible impact marks in Jovian cloud tops.

"My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history, hopefully it will sign its name on Jupiter's cloud tops," Peterson wrote.

In Dallas, Texas, amateur astronomer George Hall read Peterson's initial report on an online Jupiter-observing forum.

"When I saw the post, I went back and examined the videos that I had collected this morning," Hall wrote on his night sky photography website on Monday.

Sure enough, Hall had captured a video of the Jupiter impact and reported that it occurred at 6:35 a.m. CDT (1335 GMT) on Sept. 10. He used a 12-inch LX200GPS telescope equipped with a 3x Televue Barlow and Point Grey Flea 3 camera.

Monday's Jupiter impact was the fourth report of objects striking Jupiter since July 2009, when amateur astronomers spotted a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean in the planet's cloud tops after an apparent asteroid strike on the planet.

Two Jupiter impact events were reported in 2010 by Jupiter watchers, first in June and then again in August.

One of the most dazzling Jupiter impacts was the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crash in 1994. The comet broke into more than 20 pieces as it approached Jupiter, with each piece crashing into the giant planet. Astronomers used telescopes on the ground and in space to watch that event as it unfolded.

Source: NASA