13 ms·
Something big just hit Jupiter
- arbitrage 5y agoBuried deep inside the article: > Based on the images and video provided observers, the object’s diameter is estimated at 20 meters (ft). Similar to what happened with [the 1994 impact of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9], this object is believed to be the remnant of a larger comet or asteroid that was captured by Jupiter’s gravity that broke up shortly before the impact took place. I don't know what "20 meters (ft)" means. Probably a typo?
- lgl 5y agoRight? Besides that, considering Shoemaker-Levy was a 6 million megaton impact (according do wikipedia), saying this was "similar" is just very wrong. Still interesting and pretty cool to have been caught on camera though.
- simonh 5y agoThe 'Similar' is in relation to how Shoemaker-Levy was broken up by Jupiter's gravity, and that this object comes from a similar process.
- lgl 5y agoAh, you're right, i interpreted that comparison wrongly. In that sense then it's most probably right. Still, we don't have any evidence that this impact was from a comet, it was most likely just an asteroid plunging into it.
- dsjoerg 5y agoI bet the author planned to fill in the number of feet later, and then forgot to.
- marcodiego 5y ago> Based on the images and video provided observers, the object’s diameter is estimated at 20 meters (ft). A 20 meter object created a fireball that could be observed from earth?
- Gravityloss 5y agoYeah, stood out as surprisingly small. Jupiter diameter is about 140,000 km so isn't that flash at hundreds of kilometers across? I got 21 pixels while the planet is 500 pixels so 21*14000/500 = 588 km . Blurring might expand it though so in reality could be smaller. Tunguska was estimated 50-60 m diameter though I guess velocity could tend to be higher at Jupiter? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
- Gravityloss 5y agoNobody spotted the error? 21*140000/500=5880 km
- jiggawatts 5y agoJupiter's high gravity likely meant that it hit at a greater velocity than it would have if it impacted Earth. As a rule-of-thumb, asteroids hit at or above escape velocity. Earth's is 11 km/s, Jupiter's is 60 km/s. Energy is the linear product of mass, but quadratic product of velocity. Hence, the ratio of an impactor's energy hitting Jupiter vs Earth is not 6:1, but 36:1. Mind you, this is nothing compared to what happens if even a mere pebble hits a neutron star!
- dhimes 5y agoI think the proper energy to calculate is that of an object falling into the Sun, being intercepted in its fall by the object it impacts.
- jaggederest 5y agoSolar escape velocity near Jupiter orbit is only around 18km/s which is quite a bit less than Jupiter's own escape velocity.
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoAlien-lifeform-infested Eros?
- space_ghost 5y agoWouldn't that require us to already have a casino there?
- somedangedname 5y agoSasa nat ke Belta, Inyalowda?
- tehbeard 5y agoNo this is closer to SCP-2399[1] It even happened while being observed... 1. https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2399 https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2399
- louchilliescu 5y agoI'd wish
- kdumont 5y agoThanks, Jupiter! Jupiter is thought to be one of the reasons earth is so hospitable, with its high gravity protecting inner planets from some comets and space debris [1]. I, for one, think we need a Jupiter appreciation day. https://earthsky.org/space/is-it-true-that-jupiter-protects-earth/ https://earthsky.org/space/is-it-true-that-jupiter-protects-...
- meowface 5y agoIs that something people searching for ET life look out for? Systems with a potentially habitable planet + at least one large celestial object to draw debris towards it and away from the potentially habitable planet?
- pc86 5y agoAre we able to see far-away systems in this level of detail? I know we can calculate number of planets and rough size/makeup, but are we able to tell that Planet A is in the habitable zone and Planet B is 300x+ the mass of Planet A, etc?
- rbanffy 5y agoWe can for a lot of systems. The shorter the orbital period, the easier they are to detect, however, and to detect Jupiter from a nearby system we’d need to be very lucky.
- LeifCarrotson 5y agoYes, at least using the transit method. Sometimes, we do use the Doppler shift caused by a planet pulling the star towards or away from us. That works as long as the orbital plane is not perfectly perpendicular to us. However, it only works for large planets (and reasonably sized stars) that have sufficient gravity to make the star move fast enough to see the light shift red or blue. An earth-mass planet would be undetectable compared to a Jovian planet. The transit method requires the orbital plane to be perfectly on axis so we can observe an eclipse as the planet passes between the star and our telescope. This is rare, but works for even small planets, as long as the angle is right. And if one angle is right, it's likely that others will be close enough as well; a large planet can also be observed. In systems that are at the right angle, Kepler often found several planets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exoplanets_discovered_using_the_Kepler_space_telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exoplanets_discovered_...
- suction 5y ago"Big" is a very soft word to use in astronomy
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- stronglikedan 5y agoit's all relative
- raxxorrax 5y agoAstronomy calls the largest non-structure objects dwarfs. It has no place to complain.
- blunte 5y agoWhat would be the result if something this large hit Earth?
- elboru 5y ago> Based on the images and video provided observers, the object’s diameter is estimated at 20 meters The Chelyabinsk meteor was 20m and it damaged 7,200 buildings, it collapsed a factory roof and shattered windows (I have no idea the composition of either of both meteors but at least this gives some perspective): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
- seanw444 5y agoChelyabinsk was 20m? That's surprisingly little damage for something equivalent to a massive light seen on Jupiter.
- shkkmo 5y agoChelyabinsk's light was probably similarly visible on Jupiter. The size of the light probably indicates the area illuminated by the explosion rather than the size of the explosion itself.
- WJW 5y agoIt was about as big as the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor from 2013, so "extensive ground damage over an irregular elliptical area around a hundred kilometres wide, and a few tens of kilometres long". So you would have a bad day if it hit the specific part of the Earth where you were located but overall not much would happen.
- cbm-vic-20 5y agoThis was found by an amateur astronomer in Brazil, who was taking pictures of Jupiter to see Io's shadow on the planet.
- dahart 5y agoLink to the impact video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImVl_TfTFEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImVl_TfTFEY
- abecedarius 5y agoIs that real time? Not sped up / slowed down?
- l0b0 5y agoIf that's realtime, how is it possible for something so big to dissipate so quickly? I would've thought the flash would take anywhere from minutes to days to dissipate.
- pvaldes 5y agoThe feeling is strange, yes. It disappeared in a cloud, and in the storms behind it. The word 'Hit' should be taken in the same way as an airplane hitting a sea of clouds.
- ginko 5y agoAny chance NASA's Juno probe could have taken close-ups?
- FractalHQ 5y agoLooks like the proto-molecule finally found the Milky Way.
- vagrantJin 5y agoThe size of that flash was about as large as the jovian moon. I don't think my brain can fully comprehend Jupiter's size though. Reading about its size is one thing - bit forming that clear scale is nigh impossible for me.
- lordnacho 5y agoIt gives latitude and longitude numbers, bit how do they work? Latitude makes sense but longitude on earth is in relation to an arbitrary line that goes through roughly where I'm sitting. But I don't have a house on Jupiter, so what's it relative to?
- mikestew 5y agoBest I can tell, it's not as simple as declaring a Jupiter version of Greenwich through which to draw that line. Not all parts of Jupiter rotate at the same rate. Anyway, there are three coordinate systems, and given that I'm not the one to be explaining such things, I'll just leave the PDF link here: https://lasp.colorado.edu/home/mop/files/2015/02/CoOrd_systems7.pdf https://lasp.colorado.edu/home/mop/files/2015/02/CoOrd_syste...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]