2009 Jupiter impact event
Date | July 19, 2009 |
---|---|
Location | Jupiter |
The 2009 Jupiter impact event, occasionally referred to as the Wesley impact, was a July 2009 impact event on Jupiter that caused a black spot in the planet's atmosphere. The impact area covered 190 million square kilometers, similar in area to the planet's Little Red Spot and approximately the size of the Pacific Ocean.[3] The impactor is estimated to have been about 200 to 500 meters in diameter.[4] (For comparison, the one for the Tunguska event was estimated to be in the 60–190 meters range.)
Discovery
When first seen close to the limb (and in poor conditions) it was only a vaguely dark spot, I [thought] likely to be just a normal dark polar storm. However as it rotated further into view, and the conditions improved I suddenly realised that it wasn't just dark, it was black in all channels, meaning it was truly a black spot.[6]
Wesley sent an e-mail to others including the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California reporting his observations.[7]
Findings
Paul Kalas and collaborators confirmed the sighting. They had time on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, and had been planning to observe Fomalhaut b, but they spent some of their time looking at the Jupiter impact.[8] Infrared observation by Keck and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF)[3] at Mauna Kea showed a bright spot where the impact took place, indicating the impact warmed a 190 million square km area of the lower atmosphere at 305° west, 57° south near Jupiter's south pole.[3]
The spot's prominence indicated that it was composed of high-altitude aerosols similar to those seen during the SL9 impact.
The force of the explosion on Jupiter was thousands of times more powerful than the suspected comet or asteroid that exploded over the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia in June 1908.[2] (This would be approximately 12,500–13,000 megatons of TNT, over a million times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima).[10]
Impactor
The object that hit Jupiter was not identified before Wesley discovered the impact. A 2003 paper estimated comets with a diameter larger than 1.5 kilometers impact Jupiter about every 90 to 500 years,[11] while a 1997 survey suggested that the astronomer Cassini may have recorded an impact in 1690.[12]
Given the size of the SL9 impactors,[13] it is likely that this object was less than one kilometer in diameter.[2][14]
Finding water at the site would indicate that the impactor was a comet,
As of 2012, the impactor is believed to have been an asteroid with a diameter of about 200 to 500 meters.[4]
Visibility
Assuming it was an inactive comet (or asteroid) about 1 km in diameter, this object would have been no brighter than about
See also
References
- ^ Dennis Overbye (2009-07-24). "Hubble Takes Snapshot of Jupiter's 'Black Eye'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
- ^ a b c "Hubble Captures Rare Jupiter Collision". Hubblesite (STScI-2009-23). 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
- ^ a b c Jupiter pummeled, leaving bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. University of California, Berkeley press release, July 21, 2009.
- ^ a b Jia-Rui C. Cook (January 26, 2011). "Asteroids Ahoy! Jupiter Scar Likely from Rocky Body". News and Features @ NASA/JPL. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
- ^ Mackey, Robert (July 21, 2009). "Amateur Finds New Earth-Sized Blot on Jupiter". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- ^ Wesley, Anthony. "Impact mark on Jupiter, 19th July 2009". (jupiter.samba.org). Archived from the original on 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- ^ O'Loughlin, Toni and agencies (2009-07-21). "Amateur astronomer spots Earth-size scar on Jupiter". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 29 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- ^ a b Jupiter adds a feature Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine. Keck Observatory observations, July 21, 2009
- ^ Martinez, Carolina (July 20, 2009). "New NASA Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- ISBN 978-3-540-32709-7. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2009-07-26.). Accessed 2009-07-27. 2009-07-29.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link - doi:10.1016/S0019-1035(03)00048-4. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
1.5-km-diameter comets is currently N(d > 1.5 km) = 0.005+0.006
−0.003 per annum - .
Jupiter has been continuously monitored for almost 400 yr
- ^ D. A. Crawford. "Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragment Size" (PDF). Lunar and Planetary Institute. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- ^ "Surprise Collision on Jupiter Captured by Gemini Telescope". Gemini Observatory. 23 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
- ^ Perlman, David. "Glowing scar is revealing Jupiter's secrets" San Francisco Chronicle, 23 July 2009.
- ^ Grossman, Lisa (2009-07-21). "Jupiter sports new 'bruise' from impact". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- ^ a b c d Carl Hergenrother (2009-07-21). "More on the Jupiter Impact". The Transient Sky (Blog). Retrieved 2009-07-24.
- ^ billion (1.3×1011)
- ^ Scott S. Sheppard. "New Satellites of Jupiter Discovered in 2003". Carnegie Institution (Department of Terrestrial Magnetism). Archived from the original on 8 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
- ^ "New moon of Jupiter found". SpaceFlight Now (University of Arizona News Release). Retrieved 2009-07-23.
Further reading
- Hammel, H. B.; Wong, M. H.; Clarke, J. T.; De Pater, I.; Fletcher, L. N.; Hueso, R.; Noll, K.; Orton, G. S.; Pérez-Hoyos, S.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.; Simon-Miller, A. A.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P. A. (2010). "Jupiter After the 2009 Impact:hubble Space Telescopeimaging of the Impact-Generated Debris and Its Temporal Evolution". The Astrophysical Journal. 715 (2): L150. ..
- Sánchez-Lavega, A.; Wesley, A.; Orton, G.; Hueso, R.; Perez-Hoyos, S.; Fletcher, L. N.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P.; Legarreta, J.; De Pater, I.; Hammel, H.; Simon-Miller, A.; Gomez-Forrellad, J. M.; Ortiz, J. L.; García-Melendo, E.; Puetter, R. C.; Chodas, P. (2010). "The Impact of a Large Object on Jupiter in 2009 July". The Astrophysical Journal. 715 (2): L155. S2CID 119251280..
External links
- "Photo of Anthony Wesley and his telescope". (jupiter.samba.org). Archived from the original on 26 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- Jupiter Section of ALPO-Japan with Latest Jupiter Observations
- Aussie stargazer spots scar from Jupiter collision
- A comet or meteoroid hits Jupiter
- Jupiter - friend or foe? (arXiv:0806.2795)
- APOD 9/8/2009, Unexpected Impact on Jupiter polar projection animation
- Simulations unravel mysteries of 2009 Jupiter impact (physorg.com March 30, 2012)