While this kind of thing is pretty common — something that hits the largest planet in our solar system much more often than anything else in our tight space environment — it’s a pretty exceptional case that scientists can document directly.
This last collision is IFLS According to him, it was recorded accidentally by an amateur astronomer.
The impact was first detected by the OASES and PONCOTS astronomical observation projects in Okinawa at 1:45 a.m. Japan time on August 29. A social media post alerted the astronomy community with the following message: “If you spot Jupiter around the same time, please double-check the recording data and let us know via TL or DM if you see a flash!”
Shortly after, MASA’s Planetary Journal responded with some images showing the dramatic collision.
“When I woke up this morning and opened
“I was very lucky to be able to photograph this phenomenon when it happened.”
There is currently no information about the size of the object, although it was clearly large enough to be quite impressive.
きのうのTLで知った木星の閃光、It was photographed after verifying the data taken.
…声 小是(^^;
2023 hours 8pm 29 minutes 1:45, 28 hours 16:45.https://t.co/UYhnvAmA63https://t.co/Y7nCHtJq4k pic.twitter.com/g0FerdyoVg— MASA Planetary Record (@MASA_06R) August 29, 2023
Jupiter is often found full of celestial bodies due to its proximity to the asteroid belt in the solar system and its enormous gravity that attracts all the small and large space rocks that pass through it.
According to a 2013 study, Jupiter is exposed 12 to 60 times a year by objects between 5 and 20 meters in diameter. Those larger than 100 meters are likely to collide with Jupiter every few years. This rate is about 10,000 times higher than the statistics for collisions on Earth.
Due to the giant planet’s massive size and resulting strong mass gravity, the gas giant nurtures a large number of asteroids in the solar system. This often protects Earth and other inner planets from so-called planet-destroying meteors, but at the same time it can also happen that Jupiter deflects them and puts them on a collision course towards our planet.
Astronomers have captured the moments of Jupiter’s impact several times. The first time occurred in 1994 when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the gas giant, making history as the first direct observation of two objects colliding in the solar system.
Since then, at least eight additional observations of Jupiter’s impact have been made until recently, such as a particularly spectacular collision in September 2021.
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