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Subject: another 1st for Australia: amateur astronomer captures new Jupiter impact
doggtag    7/21/2009 6:12:07 AM
Have been watching this the past couple of days. Might be of interest to any of you astronomy buffs out there. ( http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17491-jupiter-sports-new-bruise-from-impact.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news ) Jupiter sports new 'bruise' from impact "...Something has smashed into Jupiter, leaving behind a black spot in the planet's atmosphere, scientists confirmed on Monday.... The impact was discovered by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley in Murrumbateman, Australia at about 1330 GMT on Sunday. " "Without having seen it, scientists can't tell how large the object was. "But the impact scar we're seeing is about the same size as one of Jupiter's big storms, Oval BA, Fletcher told New Scientist. "That, I believe, is about the size of the Earth."
 
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Herald12345    Thanks   7/21/2009 6:18:05 AM
Comet strike?
 
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stingray1003       7/22/2009 10:06:04 PM
Not entirely sure, most likely yes.
 
 Could be one of those way ward objects pulled from the kuiper belt which as they go close to the sun have tails and are known as comets.
 
 Still good observation. Good that people are watching.
 
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doggtag    old thread resurrected: a new impact detected   6/4/2010 7:27:48 AM
Just caught this one,
 
It appears that our Sol system space isn't so empty after all.
Perhaps thankfully, we do have this massive gravity well of a gas giant to keep all these cosmic critters at bay, sucking them down into the Jovian atmosphere rather than have them lured in closer by solar and inner planets' gravity that would perhaps then have greater odds of impacting us....
 
Seeing all this educational TV stuff about how much cosmic leftovers pummels the Earth annually,
it does make one wonder just how much stuff (big stuff) actually does get "eaten" by Jupiter (thankfully) that we don't see.
 
 
 
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Barracuda    Not Comet   6/6/2010 9:47:20 AM
Apparently an asteroid, not a comet.  They can tell because the scar left is different to that Shoemaker - Levy inflicted.  How cool is science when it used for good not for evil.  Bwahahahaha ... maybe I have that quote the wrong way around?
 
It was definitely a big rock though ... read in an astronomy page.
 
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