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Subscribe to RSSA photograph of Jupiter captured a flash on the surface of the massive planet, which is believed to be the impact of a comet or asteroid. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Astronomers are abuzz over sightings of a flash on Jupiter — which suggests that the giant planet has taken another bullet for the solar system team.
Monday's report follows Jovian impacts in 2009 and 2010. As in those earlier cases, the call has gone out to look for any visible scars on Jupiter's cloud tops. That would be a sure sign that an asteroid or comet was drawn in by the planet's gravitational pull, potentially saving us from a cosmic collision threat.
"It's kind of a scary proposition to see how often Jupiter gets hit," said George Hall, an amateur astronomer from Dallas who captured the flash on video this morning.
Hall didn't actually see the hit when it happened. Early Monday morning, he brought out his 12-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with the Point Grey Flea3 video camera attached, just to capture imagery for a composite picture of Jupiter. "Jupiter happens to be ideally positioned at about 6 o'clock in the morning," he explained. "It's right overhead."
That also just happened to be the time when another amateur astronomer from Oregon, Dan Petersen, made a visual observation of the flash. Peterson didn't capture an image of the flare, which lasted only a couple of seconds, but he did send his sighting report to other astronomers.
"I decided to just observe on this particular morning," he said in an email to Philippine amateur astronomer Christopher Go. "Had I been imaging I probably would have missed it while playing with webcam settings and focusing."
Go relayed Peterson's report to the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers' Jupiter forum, which set the place buzzing. Hall noticed the online hubbub and went back to review the video file on his computer. "I never would have looked" if it weren't for Petersen's report, Hall told me. The time stamp on Hall's video matched up with Petersen's observations — 6:35 a.m. CT, which is 7:35 a.m. ET or 11:35 GMT.
Hall reported his find, and shared in the accolades from fellow amateurs.
Universe Today's Nancy Atkinson quotes amateur astronomers as saying that the impact area should come back into view starting at about 1 a.m. ET Tuesday.
Jupiter impacts are of great interest to astronomers, amateur and professional, because they're part of the orbital billiards game that has shaped our solar system. In some cases, the cosmic interloper is destroyed before it has any visible effect on Jupiter's cloud tops. In weightier cases, the object breaks up and leaves black marks on the planet's atmosphere. The case of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994 is the most notable in recent memory.
Beyond the planetary science, there's the "phew" factor: Astronomers suspect that giant Jupiter's gravitational pull serves as a cosmic shield, sweeping up incoming objects that would have a deadlier effect if they were to slam into our planet. Some scientists say that without Jupiter, life on Earth wouldn't have had much of a chance.
How big was the object that caused Monday's flash? Stay tuned: We may get a better fix on that once astronomers get a follow-up look. But Hall probably won't be among the legions keeping watch on Tuesday morning. He's lost enough sleep over the past couple of nights.
"I'm almost 70 years old," he told me, "and it takes a lot out of me to get up at 4:30 or 5."
Update for 1:25 p.m. ET Sept. 11: So far, observers have seen no conclusive sign of a scar left behind on Jupiter by the flash, going by the chatter on the ALPO Jupiter forum and the Cloudy Nights website.
Update for 3:15 p.m. ET Sept. 11: Hall has posted a must-see video of the flash on Flickr. But don't bother popping the popcorn: The video clip is just four seconds long.
More cosmic collisions:
- 2009: Comet may have hit Jupiter
- 2009: See Jupiter's Great Black Spot
- 2010: Something hit Jupiter ... again!
- 2010: What whacked Jupiter? A meteor
- 2010: Yet another news flash from Jupiter
- 2011: Comet impacts scar rings of Jupiter and Saturn
Tip o' the Log to Universe Today.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Astronomy is one of the most fascinating of all the sciences. Great article, even in spite of some of the most inane posts I've ever seen.
The Earth and Jupiter...Intelligently designed and purposefully made!!! Awesome!
Yeahuh!? -- this was an interesting reality based article. No need to pervert it with trite nonsense or trolling.
Jupiter's been hit? Violence, violence. Someone should stop the violence. We should create a social program. Where is David Beckham? Do another commercial, this one against hitting planets.
"No one should ever hit a planet!"
Even knowing that Earth is approximate 120 times smaller than Jupiter, it still makes me very uncomfortable with all this major direct hits that Jupiter is taking just this past few years.
Really? What are you going to do about it? Have a nervous breakdown?
Get real. Grow up. If the Earth takes a hit, you've be gone before you even know it.
Stop being a pansy. It's called evolution!
And it's called anger management Snoopy. wow relax, he's just making a comment.
What's called anger management? I certainly don't have any anger and if I did, so what? It's a human emotion. It's there for a reason. It's called evolution, you pansy. Grow up and act like an adult.
Brazilian guy is a pansy. OOOOh, I'm quakling in my boots. I'm scared to death because some asteroid somewhere may hit the Earth some day.
What a pansy!
Lol, I can only hope that's your humor.
It is.
Snoop, I'm actually old enough to detect sarcasm between the lines, which is fine with me, other than what appears to be in your wail a hint of not getting enough sex. hehe
Snoop, may a suggest you a prescription of 500 mg of Prozac taken once a day. You would be just fine after that my son.
I am upset knowing I'm not the only strange guy in the room.
Risking being called a pansy, the thing about this article is that it took an amateur watching the sky to catch it. Remember when scientists used to be able to tell the world ahead of such events? Given the vast distance, for the object to "spark" like that it must have been massive. So much for the rhetoric that we have teams inventorying and calculating future trajectories for the very large floating rocks out there. I'm in need of managing my expectation that we will be given advanced warning of our doom. It ain't gonna happen.
dear pansy,
trust no one, be alert, but remember.. Astronomy is looking up.
Funny how just last night I watched the movie Deep Impact on Netflix.
I watched Ancient Aliens
I've seen that too. Right up my alley. What is up with that guy hairdo? The one that looks like a mad scientist. Every time he shows up, his hair is higher and higher. His name is Giorgio Tsoukalos, check it out.
I call him Hair Guy, and everyone knows who I mean. lol Its his trade mark at this point. It's like a foot tall.
And he uses more and more bronzer ;-)
Oddly enough I watched Deep Impact on Friday.
Mitchell
So, two people watched Deep Impact, and I considered watching it as I shuffled by it, and now this story. Coincidence?
Yes, he is bonzer and his hair is higher with every season. I'm starting to think he's an alien.
Um, just so I'm not the only one chuckling like a kid, he has a facebook fan page here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-crazy-hair-guy-from-Ancient-Aliens/146007658820584
Thanks Tony, I want those 5 minutes of my life back. ;-)
Though the "What if turtles were made by aliens" was funny :-)
Mitchell
I just think its hilarious that he is known as Crazy hair Guy. lol
Putting aside his hair and bronze, another noticeable factor is his excitement delivering his lines. He is either trying to get some marketing for his book or the has an alien implant up his you know what. TFNJ, if I check his facebook page I will never be able to watch that series again. lol
Yeah, all it has is pictures and comments with memes to his picture. Some are funny.
And yeah he is very into his alien theories.
Interesting a little, I'm sorry the impact wasn't in Washington DC. I believe a majority in America would like that to happen.
Only if the majority of Americans lived on another planet.
"his 12-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with the Point Grey Flea3 video camera attached" This guy gets all the chicks!
I am so into all this planet stuff. My boss says that she can not even believe I am even interested in this. She thinks this is all the biggest waste of time and money but I'm sorry I don't. It fancinates me to no end.
"Flash spotted on Jupiter: Is it a hit?"
LOL. As totally interpretated from our terrestrial perch on the third rock from the Sun.
Perhaps the intelligence that has organized itself to exist in those conditions and evolved on what we call Jupiter elocuted the same thing about us as they observed the first set of mushroom clouds exploding on Earth.
I'm just poking a little fun. In all seriousness I do enjoy these articles and this particular writer immensely. Great Job on all scores.
Thank you Obama for aligning Jupiter in the path of the meteor. Obama saved the earth again
What would be do without Obama?
Rag on some other President, I'm sure...
And whether next year, or in four years, we will. (What? You think there will ever be a man/woman that everybody's going to like? You really can't have lived long enough...)
Again Jupiter takes one for the Earth. Judging from the size of the area this time and the size of the area from Shoemaker-Levy 9 pearl #7, and it was estimated #7 was about 500-1,000 Yards or 1500-3,000 feet in diameter, it would have wreaked a bit of havoc on Earth, depending on its composition. Conglomerate rock or metalic content makes a lot of difference in energy. I'm just going from saved photo's from the Shoemaker hit and this one, with the images of Jupiter made the same size and the impact zones overlaid. Just a rough estimate so don't go telling me I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just making an observation, NOT a statement based on scientific (Professional guesswork) evidence.
Actually, Jupiter simply took one. Period.
No way to know what or where the object would have gone, had it missed. Could have hit Jupiter a few decades later instead, could have been deflected into the solar system beyond Jupiter where it would have done nothing until the Sun goes red giant, could have headed for Earth 10,000 years from now. It's a big solar system, and not everything finds its way down to Earth...
>>Some scientists say that without Jupiter, life on Earth wouldn't have had much of a chance.<<
So the ancients were right. We ought to worship and offer thanks to Jupiter, not to the parochial god Yahweh who hasn't really done anything for the human race (or even for his Chosen People, as the horror of the Holocaust demonstrates).
Bush's fault
NNNOOOO ! ! ! Had it HIT us, then it would hav been Georgie-poo's fault.
It continues to amaze me how all of this seems to work together, in part, to protect planet Earth. What an amazing and creative design whether from the Big Bang of something more intelligent. I no not which but I am continually amazed.
If you walk down a crowded street and someone fires a weapon and the guy in front of you gets hit and not you, its not an act of mysticism or a miracle. Its called hitting the biggest target.
Why does it have to be a hit? Why can't it be an eruption or better yet, this is nothing more than your guess is as good as mine. BTW, whatever happened to that god particle, I thought now that we have god all our problems were solved. Or is it back to the drawing board? When scientists can only assume, don't they know the assuming possition of assume? Somebody should tell them.
"Why does it have to be a hit?"
Because Jupiter is a massive gravitational object that we're seen stuff fall into before. This looks like that. Only smaller.
"Why can't it be an eruption..."
Jupiter doesn't have volcanism as you might think of it, and you'd never see any such events on the solid parts it has, if it did. This isn't like Earth, basically a rock with a thin layer of atmosphere around it, Jupiter is mostly gas.
"...or better yet, this is nothing more than your guess is as good as mine."
Because we don't have to guess. We know enough about Jupiter to rule out everything else. What did you think all those Pioneer and Voyager flybys, and Galileo in orbit, including a probe that went into its atmosphere were for?
"BTW, whatever happened to that god particle, I thought now that we have god all our problems were solved."
Then you thought wrong. Proving the existence of the Higgs Boson (physicists refrain from describing it as 'The God Particle' precisely because of your kind of misunderstanding) tends to confirm some theories in particle physics, and gives us a greater understanding of same.
It's not the Second Coming.
"When scientists can only assume, don't they know the assuming possition of assume?"
What? You need a grammarian, not a physicist...
The problem is, if one of NEO rocks hits the earth. I'm talking about the big ones that are wizzing by now. We would not be able to do a dam thing about it.
Depends on how big, and how much warning. You can do plenty of 'damn things,' given enough advance notice...
It's a hit! I am confirming. It's a hit!
WOW! it's hard to belive!!!!
I was awake and i looke up saw bright star? at 6am....at 12oclock....then i looked again, saw the strike! Saw it change!.....I wondered what it was!
WOW!!!! ....Ted
I'm giving you a curious side ways look and saying "Hmmmm"
I've seen that at concerts, it's some dude in the portapotty.
Just some kid playing with a laser pointer....
"Some scientists say that without Jupiter, life on Earth wouldn't have had much of a chance."
Thank God for our gas-giant protectors...really, thank God!
Thank Jupiter, the king of the gods.
"Takes hit for the team" - incorrect and intentional propaganda, promoted at the expense of reality. Research has proved that Jupiter instead FLINGS ROCKS AT US. But that research is entirely suppressed by mogul controlled media in order to keep sheeple asleep with a faked sense of "safe."
This month's Jupiter hit is the FOURTH in 18 years. A HARBINGER of the asteroid storm sweeping through our solar system and surrounding our planet. All impacts on Earth are intentionally misreported by mogul media as "earthquakes" "tsunamis" "gas pipe blasts" "sink holes" `"terrorists explosions" etc. The rain of rocks flung at us by Jupiter is the single most censored and suppressed event in history.
The reality of Jupiter's threat to Earth is exposed online at:
rockprophecy com/rocknews.html#jupiterflingsatus
NSA, Microsoft and NASA maintain cubical divisions to add propaganda "comments" to every post we make online to expose the insights rockprophecy.com
We're waiting for you to dismiss this with your accusations of delusional - a projection of your soon to be extinct fantasyland.
Well, if that's true, we should declare war on Jupiter!!
Entering a chorus of, "Blame Jupiter! Blame Jupiter! ..."
Prophetjimi, when you say "We're waiting..." is that the royal "we", the editorial "we", or the "I have multiple personalities" "we"? Enquiring minds want to know...
I think that was the paranoid schizophrenic "we," and it's sad that so many conspiracy nuts prey on people like that who really are suffering. I think this guy might be the real deal. It's a thought disorder that's impossible to argue with because their logic is what's screwed up most. You can see that he's already well defended against any sort of reasoning. Anyone who disagrees is part of the conspiracy. And any impact by any object with Earth proves his case, whether it's a re-entering bit of space junk, or maybe just the next meteor he sees. I don't know how he survives the Perseids. Let's be gentle.
(2:1 he thinks I'm from the NSA.)
True, he seems to have all the classic signs..my other guess was going to be that "we" was for "myself and all the voices in my head". I do like the NSA/Microsoft/NASA connection, though he left out the Illuminati and the Masons..
Secret of the Pyramids
What secret is that? The pharaohs had big guys with big whips. No secret.
Yep. You can work wonders with lots of time, and lots of slave labor.
'Rome wasn't built in a day,' and neither were those...
Right now I think there might be a little Jovian Boy Scout grinning ear-to-ear because he just got us with the old mirror trick! (Or was that his laser pointer?) :D
Sorry - I'm kinda giddy... It's just so awesome that someone had a telescope & camera pointed in the right place at the right time to capture such a brief event. For Shoemaker-Levy 9 everybody knew it was coming, and it was obviously a much bigger and more drawn-out event. Catching this one is like accidentally getting a really nice supernova at the instant it explodes - by chance.
And 3 cheers for our big brother Jupiter!
And, the teachers of our children have no idea how badly they are failing our students.
They can not produce the politicians necessary to understand the dangers to the human species. All they seem to be able to produce are liberals, socialists and communists that want to redistribute the wealth.
What we need to be doing is using our intelligence to determine all the things necessary to save the human species so that our leeches on society can still have human beings upon which they can shower someone else's money. I would say "taxpayer", but in reality it is more likely money from China we have borrowed.
We have less wealth than Canadians I hear.
"We have less wealth than Canadians I hear."
You mean those people with 'socialized medicine?'
Hurray! Let's redistribute the wealth! Yay!
But what's that got to do with the flash on Jupiter???
As soon as we heard the news, we pointed the telescopes at Jupiter for the following 48hrs. I've just finished a Jupiter time-lapse from last night (http://goo.gl/CNoiv) - absolutely no sign of any impact soot from Monday's comet or asteroid hit.