Jupitor inpact An apparent object impact captured about 6:35 am on Sept. 10, 2012 from Dallas, Texas

I have what is probably a really stupid question I have had since Shoemaker Levy 9, how do you 'impact' gas, and how do you leave a scar, that stays in the same place when the whole planet is supposed to be a seething mass of violent clouds?

Originally posted by Trillium
Well 10 to 100 meter is not that big
www.spaceweather.com...

I think it was bigger myseft. anybody find out it size yet.

The original anthony wesley impact flash was from a bolide approximately 10 meters in diameter. Wesley's flash was dimmer but had a more gradual light curve, probably due to a difference in impact angle. Thus far I have not heard any reports of an impact scar from this one, as was also the case for the original Wesley impact. My best guess is that it's sub-km in size, in the 100m range is not unreasonable.

If this is the impact then how was the comet / asteroid missed but the impact seen?

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13

If this is the impact then how was the comet / asteroid missed but the impact seen?

edit on 9/11/12 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

You can't see small asteroids in the fast exposures needed to record Jupiter without dramatically over-exposing it. In fact, objects similar in size to the one that caused the original Wesley impact flash are orders of magnitude too small and faint to currently detect from earth, period. Only when they impact do they cause a flash bright enough to be seen.

reply to post by ngchunter


Ok so the argument is it was a small"celestial". If so how can something so small impact a GAS /plasma GIANT /dyson sphere surface and CAUSE a SPARK that could be seen from EA*RTH? 1 would imagine a simple asteriod small in size would just go into the clouds and leave little if any trace this left a SPARK? thanks for your input

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Ok so the argument is it was a small"celestial". If so how can something so small impact a GAS /plasma GIANT /dyson sphere surface and CAUSE a SPARK that could be seen from EA*RTH?

Can you please use proper vocabulary. Please? It's the same way small meteors burn up in earth's atmosphere, ok? A speck of dust you can't see can form a brilliant meteor streak as it burns up. It hits the atmosphere at hypersonic velocities and heats up the air in front of it, and as it vaporizes it becomes quite bright. The same is true for rocks that hit Jupiter. They expend a large amount of potential energy caused by having a very relative velocity, many km per second, in just a second or two of time. That energy is released as heat and light which we can see from earth.

1 would imagine a simple asteriod small in size would just go into the clouds and leave little if any trace this left a SPARK?

It's an impact flash. I described why above, it's no fundamentally different from meteors in earth's atmosphere, just bigger.

reply to post by ngchunter


I understand and thanks ngchunter, just seemed odd it would burn up like its experiencing this planets atmospheric conditions on Jupiter.

Jupiter is one tough sucker. He doesn't play games.

Here's a graphic demonstration of what happens when a meteoroid hits "just gas".



As ngchunter said, when even a small object that is traveling at hypersonic velocities hits atmosphere/gas, it becomes many times more luminous that it would if it were just reflecting sunlight, hence why they are usually only spotted when they are already in the atmosphere..

In the case of the footage above, note how the apparent size of the object exceeds the size of the moon on a few occasions during the footage. The "apparent size" of the object is actually a measure of how bright the object is, rather than "how large" the objects is. In this case the meteoroid goes from being completely invisible, to being much brighter than the moon for short periods.

These flares in brightness are caused by the object disintegrating under the immense stress of hitting atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, and this is what we are seeing in the footage of the Jupiter impact.

You can see more examples in this compilation of meteor footage (especially the one at around 42+ seconds into the compilation):




It's also worth keeping in mind that the albedo (how much light they reflect) of these types of objects is usually less than that of coal, which doesn't make it any easier to spot relatively small asteroids/comet fragments when they are great distances away.

It's trying to ignite.

Bummer I'm back at work for two week no YouTube for me

But got to see this one

www.flickr.com...@N08/7976507568/

Got one from Facebook
Considering that Jupiter can hold 1321 Earths that means this thing was probably bigger than the moon."

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask
Ok.......

I really dont understand why this is a big deal...........

Care to explain......other then a few sentences?

This question posed by a person that does not know the difference between then and than????? To answer your question though...It is of interest to some of us because it news. Like others have posted we are lucky to have Jupiter as a trash magnet. If Jupiter were not around we may not be here.

Ya size range still at 10 to 150 meter
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Originally posted by Iamschist
I have what is probably a really stupid question I have had since Shoemaker Levy 9, how do you 'impact' gas, and how do you leave a scar, that stays in the same place when the whole planet is supposed to be a seething mass of violent clouds?

Jupiter does have a hard core
www.uwgb.edu...
It probably has no solid surface, but rather a very deep atmosphere grading downward into liquid, then solid, hydrogen, possibly with a small rocky core.

What if that wasn’t really an incoming object that impacted Jupiter but an outgoing object that was leaving the atmosphere?

If you look closely at the very short video you can see a small point of light in the cloud cover that quickly increases in size to that large flash as it clears the clouds then it quickly shrinks back down to a small point of light before going dim as if it was leaving the planet.

Think about it...

If they don’t find a dark spot when the impact site fully turns back into view of our telescopes the object had to originate from the surface of Jupiter and did not impact it.

Originally posted by Trillium

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask
Ok.......

I really dont understand why this is a big deal...........

Care to explain......other then a few sentences?

Care to tell me why someting this big hit Jupiter and nobody saw it.coming

make you think what they do know and do not tell

or there not as good at it as they make us believe.

If you are suggesting there was some kind of cover up of this object, I suggest you are wrong....Because the info on the impact is right here for all to see...No one is trying to hide this impact....If they were....I assure you, we would not be discussing it right now....

Originally posted by meticulous
What if that wasn’t really an incoming object that impacted Jupiter but an outgoing object that was leaving the atmosphere?

If you look closely at the very short video you can see a small point of light in the cloud cover that quickly increases in size to that large flash as it clears the clouds then it quickly shrinks back down to a small point of light before going dim as if it was leaving the planet.

Think about it...

If they don’t find a dark spot when the impact site fully turns back into view of our telescopes the object had to originate from the surface of Jupiter and did not impact it.

Sorry I look at it again maybe 20 more time and i do not see your side of the story.
but maybe by tomorrow we will get more answer from the pro if the impact site is still visible.

reply to post by meticulous

If they don’t find a dark spot when the impact site fully turns back into view of our telescopes the object had to originate from the surface of Jupiter and did not impact it.

Please explain.

Originally posted by Xquizit
Better Jupiter than us

.

Oh the horror for the Jupitorians, That thing could have just wiped out the Queen. Perhaps it was an attack by Saturn.

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If they were not actively tracking this thing before it hit, why would anyone think it could have been on a trajectory for Earth instead?