Jupiter Apparently Hit By Object, According to NASA Images

PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers say Jupiter has apparently been struck by an object, possibly a comet.

Images taken by NASA early Monday show a scar in the atmosphere near the south pole of the gas giant.

The images, taken by the space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii, come on the 15th anniversary of another comet strike.

In 1994, Jupiter was bombarded by pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena captured the new images after receiving a tip from an amateur astronomer the night before.

Comments

[lionzion]

I'm was pissing in my pants, when I heard the object that hit Jupiter was the size of the third planet from the sun... Be afraid, be very afraid!

[GeorgeMilquetoast]

Folks, the object that struck Jupiter was nowhere near the size of Earth. If a planet is a gas giant and a pebble hits it at several tens of thousands of miles per hour, then the impact is going to make a "splash" with many large ripples. It's also going to churn a lot of the gasses from the lower atmosphere into the upper atmosphere. As such, you're going to see a spot that's very much larger than the impacting object.

[cd789]

Correct, my back of the envelope calculations say that this object was about 60-70 miles in diameter. Hard to know for certain without having its initial velocity, though.

[Telemachus]

Quick! Scramble the F-22s!

[Forester]

Unlike Rush, that gas giant has some tremendous gravitational attraction.

[gallon]

Well, Rush floats pretty well, does that count?

[nicemarmot]

Buzz Aldrin tagged Jupiter for calling him a coward

[FinallyFreeOfGeorgeIII]

Darn! Now all the Jupiter dinosaurs are dead too.

[gallon]

Ha ha ha!

[dorzic]

Thank you for taking the hit, Jupiter. Keep on dragging those objects into your own sphere of gravity and keeping them away from Gaya.

[yesIcan]

Jupiter Hit By Object.

You can bet the Republicans will blame even that on Obama.

[A Meat Beetle]

I doubt it would be of much use to them. Most of their base probably doesn't even know about the solar system, or the planets, or even that the Earth is several billion yeas old.

[stanblack]

Ding!

[robiform]

And I'm sure a large percentage of them think that the earth is flat!!

[3rdpartypatriot]

This happens pretty frequently, we just don't get a good picture. Some astronomers liken Jupiter to a vacuum cleaner for the solar system. As it has the most mass of any of the planets, most small objects flying into our system pull toward jupiter and get flung away or hit it. Because of this, not so many of these objects strike Earth and the planets closer to us. If a comet that size hit our planet millions of people could die.

The impact force and shock wave would be many times more powerful than the most powerful nuclear detonation (50-57 megatons by the Russians).

Thank Jupiter!

[A Meat Beetle]

One of the pieces of Comet Schumacher-Levy that hit Jupiter a few years back left a "scar" (I don't think craters are possible on a gas ball like Jupiter) larger than Earth. Thank Jupiter, indeed!

[veggiehead]

Interesting. Thanks for info.

[mapleaforever]

It was Michael Steele going ballistic over health care (which he's already got).

[Phxflyer]

Great . . . now the republicans will tell us that millions dies on Jupiter because the cut dollars for comet defense. You know it'll happen.

[slash77]

My goodness….this object was the size of Earth!!! So can someone explain why this could not happen to the Earth again! I consider this a ‘near miss’

[AdamX]

Not only "it could", but it most certainly will! Devastating objects hit this planet on the average of once every 5000 years (lately).

[A Meat Beetle]

I saw an episode of NOVA a few years ago that dealt with this. One of the scientists they interviewed said that, in all likelihood, the object that might hit us would sneak up, completely undetected. We really don't know very much about what's out there or where things are.

[Tunghoy]

Astronaut Wally Schirra is a one-man lobbying organization trying to get the US and other major powers to create a planetary defense against celestial objects that make close encounters. I hope he has better luck with the current administration than he did with the last one.

[Telemachus]

"Your attention, please. The Comet Threat Level has been raised to Orange. All celestial objects please remove your shoes and proceed through the metal detector."

[newworldman777]

I hate to have to tell you this, but Wally Schirra passed away in May of 2007. He was 84 years old.

[cd789]

The impact scar is the size of the Earth, but the object was much, much less.

[kev1000]

Since Jupiter is in our solar system, we technically own it. Who do we sue for damages?

[lentinelia]

I will be glad to represent the solar system in this important case.

It is obvious that this is the work of an alien prankster.
An example must be made of this individual and any associates.
If we go on letting our planets be bombarded by suspected comets, we will have to face them here.
It is time to take a stand.
Off to Jupiter.

[stanschurman]

Hmmm, that remark "....we technically own it..." smacks of bygone days when countries thought they had the right to own other countries, i.e., colonialism. I know it was meant facetiously, but I have wondered if there is a code of conduct being considered that would say that, just because we explore space, doesn't mean we own everything we discover. Or would we regard Mars, for example, in the same way the Conquistadors regarded Central and South America or the British, French, Dutch and Spanish regarded North America and India and Africa and The Middle East..

[mrsfeild]

it was a joke

[kareemachan]

God?

[kev1000]

Hey, there's an idea! I hear he's got a lot of money!

[cd789]

By your reasoning, since the impact object was in the solar system, we owned that, too. Apparently, the damage was self-inflicted.

[SpinDown08]

Funny this should come up......

I've been trying to gather more information on something I stumbled across regarding a dwarf planet called Nibiru or more commonly called Planet X. The claims are that it has a large eliptical orbit around our sun's dead twin, so large that it takes 3,600 years to make a complete orbit. It's plotted orbit brings it into intersection within our own solar system in December 2012, crossing somewhere between Saturn and earth. It's a doomsday event, the scale dependent on where it passes, what kind of mass it is made of, and where we will be when it passes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf3jPtaq9Q4

Now there are arguments on both sides that claim or debunk the existence of Nibiru. Trust me, I'd really like to believe the debunkers, but there are some things going on that at least seem to indicate that people know about something that is going to happen and are preparing.

1) The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was completed in January, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

2) The South Pole Telescope was constructed and began science observations in March 2007. NIbiru researchers say this is because the first view of Nibiru will only be visible at first from the South pole due to a southern orbital approach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Telescope
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hercolobus/esp_hercolobus_63.htm

[hypnus]

I saw that movie, it was called, When Worlds Collide, a B grade SciFi flick from 1951.

[SpinDown08]

Ha...ha....

I tracked back 3600 years to see if there were any major geologic events that occurred around that time. I found the Minoan eruption:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption

The debris was so vast, it was recorded in China as when the sky turned yellow and the crops died from a freak winter in July. Funny thing is that researchers found no bodies at the site, indicating they had months of warning. Possibly a strange light in the sky?

[kareemachan]

The original book was much better.

[ConnectTheDots]

We'll be fine:

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/25/2012-no-planet-x/

[SpinDown08]

Yeah? Watch this by scientist Michio Kaku on mainstream news.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&oi=video_result&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFN9RyIa6jQE&ei=SOxlStyEMYXcsgOn1cXdDg&rct=j&q=kaku+2012&usg=AFQjCNH-RwlAjLzh0oIZnbWcjfaqaPPuVg

[A Meat Beetle]

2012--that's when the Mayan calendar ends--Dec. 21, 2012.

[LovesWidow]

I've been following this subject for a while too and information can be very hard to come by. I found this book "Lost star of myth and time" by Walter Cruttenden. It is filled with a lot of supporting infomaton on the effects of this binary system. It merges science, history and religion. I really enjoyed this book (read it 4 times so far) and I've also read many of the books referenced there in. There is a DVD as well but the book is much, much better. If you pick it up, ENJOY!

[Graycat]

Try finding "Zecharia Sitchin's" "Tenth Planet" from his The Earth Chronicles series.
I never decided if he was a scholar or a crack pot, but you might find them interesting.

[american-dolt]

There is something about the "date" this happened that is spooky. Same day man on the Moon, but there is more to this.... research it yourself.

Cassini?

[Telemachus]

I prefer the Cabernet, thanks.