Jupiter got slammed by something so big we saw it from Earth

a reply to: BrianFlanders

I think the quality of the image may be due to using a fairly cheap B&W web cam like device to record through a telescope. Then combining or stacking the frames of the movie. By using filters on the telescope you can produce color images. This gives you better detailed images then what you could see with your eye through that telescope.

Here are some images of Mars by amateurs.

Amateur images of Mars

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: BrianFlanders

I think the quality of the image may be due to using a fairly cheap B&W web cam like device to record through a telescope. Then combining or stacking the frames of the movie. By using filters on the telescope you can produce color images. This gives you better detailed images then what you could see with your eye through that telescope.

Here are some images of Mars by amateurs.

Amateur images of Mars

That does look pretty good even for stacked images but I guess the state of the art is just much more than it was when I was really interested in amateur astronomy in the 90s. Back then, typical amateur images were not great. Well, the ones of deep sky stuff were pretty good but planets were not (generally).

A C8, using a digital back and stacking the frames can certainly produce quality shots like that.
Not to mention, Jupiter is about as close as it gets to Earth presently.
There are a number of ATS'rs that have similar equipment, and they should chime in showing some of their incredible work.

Amazing how we almost always see Jupiters storm when ever anything happens, you’d think it was tidal locked, but we spin too...so....

originally posted by: Alien Abduct

originally posted by: rickymouse
Kind of interesting that you would actually see the flash like that through the clouds on the planet. Unless of course, if the gasses were actually flammable and the meteor contained oxygen to help fuel the flash.

Do you think oxygen is the only gas that burns?

Propane or natural gas can't burn without oxygen. You need a strong oxidizer to create an event that big.

a reply to: rickymouse

Things can vaporize without oxidizing.
Vaporization can release a good deal of energy.

originally posted by: gallop
a reply to: LookingAtMars

A bit off topic, but what sort of backyard telescope captures images like this? Must be in the very large $$$.. sucks to be me, I can barely see anything..

With a telescope..

Interesting though!

According to his twitter he used an 8" telescope. They start at about $500 I think. You get what you pay for though. My guess is that his setup with lens and camera is more in the $2000 area.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Kind of interesting that you would actually see the flash like that through the clouds on the planet. Unless of course, if the gasses were actually flammable and the meteor contained oxygen to help fuel the flash.

When an object enters an atmosphere at high(orbital) speed it compresses the gases in front of it to the point of making them glow, heating them up to about 10000 degrees. How long the glow/flash lasts depends on things like mass, speed, entry angle, atmosphere density.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: LookingAtMars

Beats me. I'm a Mechanical Engineer not an Astrophysicist. I was reading up on explosively formed penetrators and found out about the plasma thing.

Ok Scotty, just get the teleporters working!

There is a theory that one of the reasons the earth hasn't been wiped out by comets and asteroids traveling in our solar system is because Jupiter has such mass and gravity it helps to pull them in and it absorbs them.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

That is a double edged sword. Jupiter may also alter the orbits of asteroids and comets to send them in our direction.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Blue_Jay33

That is a double edged sword. Jupiter may also alter the orbits of asteroids and comets to send them in our direction.

True enough. We use the same whipping effect to give planetary explorers speeds that can get them to multiple destinations in much less travel time. Wonder what is the maximum speed that Jupiter could whip a big asteroid. Could be incredibly fast, but the size matters.

a reply to: charlyv

No "whipping" required. A slight nudge would be sufficient.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

a reply to: Phage

That is a great article. I guess most just have to be 'nudged', but bet there were probably some great sling-shot events for things that approached it at just the right angle.

we only THINK/BELIEVE it was smashed by something... we don't know what it truly was or what happened...

originally posted by: tmpxvx
we only THINK/BELIEVE it was smashed by something... we don't know what it truly was or what happened...

A shot of disturbed atmosphere seen as Jupiter rotates, like in the SL9 events, would be proof enough that it was a captured asteroid that slammed into the big boy.

Jupiter's day varies from "9 hours and 56 minutes around the poles to 9 hours and 50 minutes close to the equator". (courtesy: CoolCosmos)

You would think that would have been observed by now.

a reply to: charlyv

The chunks of Shoemaker-Levy were very large and did indeed leave scars.

This object was not as large so all we see is the flash as it vaporizes in Jupiter's outer atmosphere. That's as far as it made it. It's not the first time.

cosmicdiary.org...

a reply to: Phage
Wonder if Juno could spot what we otherwise could not see.
Guess it would have had to be readily observable near when it happened.

Wow! What a cool story and photographs! And darn it, I missed photographing it myself. Jupiter had a conjunction with our Moon on Friday night, so Thursday the night before and Friday I was out photographing Jupiter. But not Wednesday when all the action was taking place.

Edit to add:
Friday night's Moon-Jupiter conjunction:

Moon-Jupiter Conjunction

a reply to: LookingAtMars>>> True story. This was during some kind of government bailout several years ago. Something to do with a tech company and the feds were being sent out to California to oversee their operations. Obama was in office. Anyway, I saw a procession of big learjets flying over the house heading west.From their altitude and path I put their origin from the old Willow Grove airport in Montgomery County. I think now its a drone airport, it used to be an air force base years ago. I grabbed a pair of binoculars to see any markings and while I was looking I saw a white orb way way up in the atmosphere. You'd never see it with the naked eye but it looked like a tiny snowball. I thought something was high in orbit over the earth and we'd never see it during the day. This was about 8:00 AM early Springtime. I did some research and found out by its location it was the planet Jupiter which was visible during the day and bright at night. We see the moon during the day, after all. No Death Star.