2010 Jupiter impact event

The 2010 Jupiter impact event was a bolide impact event on Jupiter by an object estimated to be about 8–13 meters in diameter.[1] The impactor may have been an asteroid, comet, centaur, extinct comet, or temporary satellite capture.

Contents

Observation

The impact happened 3 June 2010, and was recorded and first reported by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley from Australia. The event was confirmed by Christopher Go at the Philippines, who filmed the event, and has released a video.[2][3][4]

The observed flash lasted about two seconds.[2][5] It was located in the South Equatorial Belt, about fifty degrees from the central meridian.[6] The June 2010 superbolide impactor probably measured between 8–13 meters across, with a mass between 500-2000 metric tons.[7] Jupiter probably gets hit by several objects of this size each year.[7]

On August 20, 2010 UT, yet another flash event was detected on Jupiter.[8] As of August 23 two other observers had recorded the same event.[9]

Previous impacts

1994 impact

In July 1994 the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart and collided with Jupiter, resulting in a series of hits. This incident had been predicted in advance.

2009 impact

On 19 July 2009 an impact was observed, which caused a black spot on Jupiter's atmosphere. This unpredicted event was first reported by Anthony Wesley, who also first observed the 2010 event.[2] The 2009 impact has been studied by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and the study suggests that the observed incident was a hit by an asteroid about 500 metres wide.[11]

References

  1. ^ Hueso, R.; Wesley; Perez-Hoyos; Wong; et al. (2010). "First Earth-based Detection of a Superbolide on Jupiter". The Astrophysical Journal 721 (2). arXiv:1009.1824. Bibcode 2010ApJ...721L.129H. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/721/2/L129. 
  2. ^ a b c Sayanagi, Kunio M. (3 June 2010). "Jupiter hit by another impactor Thursday". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/breaking-news-jupiter-hit-by-yet-another-impactor.ars. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 
  3. ^ Bakich, Michael (4 June 2010). "Another impact on Jupiter". Astronomy Magazine online. http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=9918. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 
  4. ^ http://www.christone.net/astro/jupiter/index.htm
  5. ^ "Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley films Jupiter impact". The Daily Telegraph. 5 June 2010. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/amateur-australian-astronomer-anthony-wesley-films-jupiter-impact/story-e6freuzi-1225875569064. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 
  6. ^ Rogers, John H.. "New impact on Jupiter before & after". British Astronomical Association. http://alpo-j.asahikawa-med.ac.jp/kk10/j100604r.htm. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 
  7. ^ a b "WITHOUT A TRACE – A FLASH IN JUPITER'S SKY". Gemini Observatory. 2010-09-09. http://www.gemini.edu/node/11527. Retrieved 2010-09-09. 
  8. ^ "Optical flash on Jupiter". http://chiron.mtk.nao.ac.jp/watanabe/optical-flash-on-jupiter. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  9. ^ Beatty, Kelly (22 August 2010). "Another Flash on Jupiter!". Sky & Telescope. Sky Publishing. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/101264994.html. Retrieved 23 August 2010. "Masayuki Tachikawa was observing ... 18:22 Universal Time on the 20th ... Kazuo Aoki posted an image ... Ishimaru of Toyama prefecture observed the event" 
  10. ^ Dennis Overbye (24 July 2009). "Hubble Takes Snapshot of Jupiter’s ‘Black Eye’". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/science/space/25hubble.html?ref=science. Retrieved 6 June 2010. 
  11. ^ "Hubble Images Suggest Rogue Asteroid Smashed Jupiter". 3 June 2010. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/16/full/. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 

External links