Jupiter Explosion Spotted Bby Amateur Astronomers

The bright flash—captured on amateur video—lasted roughly two seconds.

Early Monday morning U.S. amateur astronomers spotted a bright light squiggling across the upper cloud deck of Jupiter. Both assumed they’d witnessed a large meteor or comet impact, and so far, professional astronomers seem to agree.

NASA‘s Amy Simon Miller, though, cautioned that, “at this point, we can only confirm based on the fact that there were two independent reports.” Official observations will have to wait.

Such a strike would be the fourth impact seen on Jupiter in just the last three years. And the fact that the explosion was visible via backyard telescopes more than 454 million miles (730 million kilometers) away—indicates it was probably a significant event.

“Although we don’t yet know the size or exact nature of the impactor, based on the flash brightness we expect it is slightly bigger and energetic than the one seen in 2010, which was estimated to be on the order of 10 meters [33 feet] in size,” said Miller, chief of the planetary systems laboratory at Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland. “By contrast, the impactor in 2009 was likely 200 to 500 meters [660 to 1,600 feet].”

(See “Bright Fireball Slams Into Jupiter” [June 2010] and “Jupiter Impact Creates Huge New Spot” [July 2009].)

Leaving a Mark on Jupiter?

Amateur astronomer Dan Peterson, in Racine, Wisconsin, watched the Jupiter impact live while peering through a 12-inch telescope. Later, his counterpart to the south—George Hall of Dallas, Texas—realized he’d accidentally caught the flash on video, thanks to a webcam-telescope link. (Watch the video of Monday’s Jupiter impact.)

“My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history,” wrote Peterson on a telescope message board post titled “I observed an explosion on Jupiter this morning!”

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