New NASA Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter

Originally posted by TheOracle
Please pardon my ignorance but I had the belief that Jupiter has no solid ground for something to crash on?
I read reports of crash and impact, anybody knows what it is crashing into?

It is believed that Jupiter has a solid rocky core so there is something to impact. Here is a good article from space.com on the core of Jupiter.
www.space.com...

Don't worry about anything at all, the government will just deploy the "ACME Asteroid Deflector Umbrella (Model A100)" that Wile E. Coyote recommends and everything will be fine!!!!

Go back to your cable TV and Cheetos.

Originally posted by aleon1018
What does geological history suggest and with statistics as with cyclical events

NEOs=Near Earh Objects Impact Frequency
impact.arc.nasa.gov...

Since the mid-1990s, the most common estimate has been that the Earth is hit by a "civilization threatening" impact (by a 1.5-km-diameter asteroid) about twice per million years, which is equivalent to a 1-in-5000 chance per century. But it is hard to tie down such estimates, in part because there is also a range of uncertainty as to what constitutes a civilization-threatening impact, spreading over at least a factor of two in asteroid size (from 1 km to 2 km diameter).

That paper contains a lot of other good information relevant to your question also.

Originally posted by aleon1018
As delusional as it may sound, I was led to believe by what I've thought was remote viewing, was that Jupiters atmosphere is some type of protective barrier by a more highly advanced humanoid race with larger eyes. That would be fascinating if it were actually true. This type of scenario has been suggested in science fiction programs as well.

Carl Sagan explains why that's unlikely in this video but offers some other possible alternatives, based partly on speculation and partly on scientific fact:

Originally posted by Erasurehead

Originally posted by TheOracle
Please pardon my ignorance but I had the belief that Jupiter has no solid ground for something to crash on?
I read reports of crash and impact, anybody knows what it is crashing into?

It is believed that Jupiter has a solid rocky core so there is something to impact. Here is a good article from space.com on the core of Jupiter.
www.space.com...

From your source:

They found Jupiter's core is an Earth-like rock that's 14 to 18 times the mass of Earth, or about 5 percent of Jupiter's total mass.

So if we accept that Jpuiter has 5% of its mass as a relatively small core, would the object hitting Jupiter would still be intact by the time it reached the core?

To help you answer that, think about Earth for a minute. We have an atmosphere so thin, it's thinner than an eggshell is to an egg, and the vast majority of all objects hitting our atmosphere burn up before they ever hit the ground.

Now consider that Jupiter's "atmosphere" or better to say the gas part of the planet, is so thick it is 95% of the mass. Even if a large object hit Jupiter, the chances are small that its trajectory would even take it on a direct course with the core, since the core is so small.

Lastly, while I think it unlikely many solid objects would impact Jupiter's core, even if they did, that's not what we would see.

What we observe on earth of impacts on Jupiter are disruptions of the gas near the visible surface, and plumes of ejected gas.

They didn't see it coming because it probably wasn't an impact. It could have been the result of volcanic activity triggering a pocket of just the right gasses or compounds to produce a huge explosion.

Maybe Jupiter is going to one day ignite and become a small star. This could be it's birth pangs.

Then again, I'm not much of a space cadet.

Where is Phage when you need him?

Originally posted by John Matrix
They didn't see it coming because it probably wasn't an impact. It could have been the result of volcanic activity triggering a pocket of just the right gasses or compounds to produce a huge explosion.

If it was a comet they might not see it coming, comets can be dark and therefore extremely difficult to see, especially if much of their volatile material has outgassed. (The bright part of the comet we see on earth is from the outgassing of volatile material, but since Jupiter is so much further from the sun than earth, that effect is reduced at Jupiter's distance). See this:

'Dark' comets may pose threat to Earth

But without seeing the impactor, we can't be 100% sure it was an impact, though what we can do is compare the signature to the signature of the Shoemaker-Levy impacts 15 years ago to look for similarities.

As for volcanoes, if they exist in the 5% of Jupiter's solid mass, they are probably too deep to have much if any visible effect on the surface, and especially not isolated to such a small arc of the surface.

Now as to the possibility of some type of gaseous explosion caused by something other than a volcano, that may be possible but to give that theory any weight we'd have to come up with a mechanism for the explosion, and I don't know of one. Therefore the impact seems most likely to me.

[edit on 21-7-2009 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by Arbitrageur


I haven't yet checked your links etc. But I am now thinking that with the type of storm activity and high winds on Jupiter, that a sand storm or even larger particles of that magnitude would rip many incoming objects apart also. I guess the math might prove otherwise. I would then assume sending anything in to investigate wouldn't make it then either. Or have they already?

I'll check your info later. Thanks.

Originally posted by aleon1018
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

I haven't yet checked your links etc. But I am now thinking that with the type of storm activity and high winds on Jupiter, that a sand storm or even larger particles of that magnitude would rip many incoming objects apart also. I guess the math might prove otherwise. I would then assume sending anything in to investigate wouldn't make it then either. Or have they already?

I'll check your info later. Thanks.

Yes we sent a probe into Jupiter.

The storms might not help but I doubt they were a huge factor, I think high temperatures were the big issue.

Here's some info about the probe:
spaceflightnow.com...

the orbiter started receiving data from the descent probe, which slammed into the top of the Jovian atmosphere at a comet-like speed of 170,000 kilometers per hour (106,000 miles per hour). In the process, the probe withstood temperatures twice as hot as the Sun's surface. The probe slowed by aerodynamic braking for about two minutes before deploying its parachute and dropping a heat shield. The wok-shaped probe floated down about 200 kilometers (125 miles) through the clouds, transmitting data to the orbiter on sunlight and heat flux, pressure, temperature, winds, lightning and atmospheric composition. Fifty-eight minutes into its descent, high temperatures silenced the probe's transmitters. The probe sent data from a depth with a pressure 23 times that of the average on Earth's surface, more than twice the mission requirement.

[edit on 21-7-2009 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Interesting. I wonder if they plan on making any more attempts. It would be a true test of our abilites in order to send probes into various hostile environments. I'm surpised it was even able to send any data. Maybe one day we'll be sending probes into the sun, if we haven't yet already.

Newspaper here is reporting it as "an earth sized chunk of space debris", i admit a little bit of wee came out, but i think they meant to say that the scar was around the size of the earth, i was wondering how the hell we could miss an object the size of the earth clunking into jupiter........(missing an object the size of a planet, near jupiter, i can see where that one is headed)

Herald Sun Article

What if it was an explosion ?
I have a hard time beleiving anything that has a "official stamp " on it . We all know that NASA has 2 sides...just my first impression on the press release.........misdirection.

15 years to the day is slighty bizarre. What are the chances of that?

Originally posted by fetidchimp
Newspaper here is reporting it as "an earth sized chunk of space debris", i admit a little bit of wee came out, but i think they meant to say that the scar was around the size of the earth, i was wondering how the hell we could miss an object the size of the earth clunking into jupiter........(missing an object the size of a planet, near jupiter, i can see where that one is headed)

Herald Sun Article

Sounds like you know more about science than the writer, way to go!!! Well the writers aren't astronomers, but it's a good reminder that we need to take whatever non-scientists report to us with a grain of salt, your interpretation is way more logical.

Originally posted by Grayelf2009
What if it was an explosion ?
I have a hard time believing anything that has a "official stamp " on it . We all know that NASA has 2 sides...just my first impression on the press release.........misdirection.

Read the story, this wasn't even discovered by NASA, it was discovered by an amateur astronomer, NASA just confirmed it.

Alternate explanations are welcome but they will be taken more seriously if you present some logic or science to back it up, like a mechanism or explanation for the explosion.

How do we know that it's not a dark plume of some sort mixing with the atmosphere from an eruption? like this one in 2007: Incredible new images from Jupiter show volcanic eruption

Originally posted by fetidchimp
Newspaper here is reporting it as "an earth sized chunk of space debris", i admit a little bit of wee came out, but i think they meant to say that the scar was around the size of the earth, i was wondering how the hell we could miss an object the size of the earth clunking into jupiter........(missing an object the size of a planet, near jupiter, i can see where that one is headed)

Herald Sun Article

I would be concerned if there were Earth sized chunks of space debris floating around in space and nobody on the planet noticed it until it hit something.

reply to post by ROBL240


You are actually correct. For hundreds of years people have claimed to witness explosions or impacts on the moon whether it be while looking at the moon with telescopes, binoculars, whatever. Scientists use to think these people were nuts.

For some reason this wasn't a very popular thread on ATS at the time, but I did start a thread about this that can be found here:

100 Explosions on the Moon

The number 100 referring to the number of impacts observed and documented by NASA just between late 2005 and 2008. You are right. These impacts can be observed with amateur telescopes and even binoculars.

HERE is the official NASA story on this from May 21, 2008.

THIS map displays the locations of the 100 impacts/explosions referred to in the NASA news story.

Turns out these kinds of impacts aren't so rare. Scientists just use to think people were crazy when reporting such events.. Now they take them a little more seriously. And 100 is only the number events NASA had witnessed. Who knows how many occurred on the far side (Probably more when you think about it). Some of these might even be visible to the naked eye.

-ChriS

[edit on 23-7-2009 by BlasteR]

reply to post by HealingMindN


The volcanic activity was on Io, a moon of Jupiter, not Jupiter itself. Gravity is far more intense on Jupiter compared to Earth, and additionally the core is tiny compared to the massive atmosphere. The planet is so big, that it's radius is the same as 11 Earths. This makes a volcano causing these effects highly unlikely compared to a comet, which have left dark scars in the past.



[edit on 23/7/2009 by C0bzz]

Here's a good interview with Anthony Wesley. He seems very knowledgable on the subject for an amateur. Wonder what he does for a living then...

www.npr.org...

Click on the "Listen Now" 3 min 57 sec link.

[edit on 24-7-2009 by heffo7]