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Ask Ethan: Why Is Jupiter Hit By So Many Objects In Space? (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]
“An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us.” -Elon Musk
The possibility of getting hit by a wayward asteroid or comet is a scenario that could range from an expensive inconvenience to a mass extinction-level event, depending on the mass and speed of the potential impactor. While recent events like Chelyabinsk and Tunguska — and more energetic ones like Barringer crater and the Cretaceous-ending strike that caused the last mass extinction — remind us how dangerous the Universe can be, that’s nothing compared to what Jupiter experiences.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, H. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.), and the Jupiter Impact Team, of the aftermath of the 2009 Jupiter impact.
In 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck Jupiter with the same energy as the dinosaur-killer that struck Earth 65 million years ago, followed just 15 years later by a strike so energetic it hasn’t been seen on Earth in hundreds of thousands of years. Multiple recent events show that collision on Jupiter are far more frequent than we’d expect for its size, and yet gravitation is only part of the rest of the story.
Image credit: Sebastian Voltmer (processing) and Gerrit Kernbauer (data/image).
Why is Jupiter such an impact-prolific world? Get the full scoop on this edition of Ask Ethan!
Source: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2016/04/09/ask-ethan-why-is-jupiter-hit-by-so-many-objects-in-space-synopsis/
