20 July 2009
Something Smacked Jupiter! (Updated with Hubble Image)
Posted by Dan Satterfield
An astronomer (Anthony Wesley) in OZ first noticed it Sunday. On the eve of the 40th anniversary if the Moon landing. An Earth sized black spot near the South polar regions of Jupiter. It looked remarkably like the images seen when the Shoemaker Levy comet hit Jupiter in 1994.
Image from Anthony Wesley (I rotated it to correct angle) 1555Z 19 July 2009
From NASA Mauna Kea infrared telescope in Hawaii
This image started a mad rush in the astronomical world! Observations from the giant telescopes of the world began and NASA JPL tonight has an IR image showing strong indications that this was indeed an asteroid, or a comet.
Thanks to Phil Plait and his great blog “Bad Astronomy” for the heads up! You should really bookmark his site if you are at all interested in Science/ Astronomy.
The Hubble Telescope, still being calibrated after the Shuttle repair, was quickly turned toward Jupiter. The result is stunning!
We live in a hostile universe, and if something that big had hit Earth, the cockroaches would likely be the largest survivors. The formula for the Kinetic energy of an object is quite simple. KE= 1/2 mass * velocity squared. Double the mass, and the energy doubles. Double the velocity and it goes up 4 times. Do the math on an object of 10,000 metric tons going 60 km/sec.
BIG OUCH. By by dinosaurs, hello Mammals!
Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite 😉
Dan
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
“We live in a hostile Universe”
This is a profound statement that really took me almost 30 years to figure out. Monotheists tend to believe that there is some sort of “fine tuning” that would allow the Universe to harbor Human Life. I grew up with this belief, and it took me a long time to add up all the evidence that the Universe is, like you said, a very misanthropically violent and dangerous place!
Actually, if we take everything in consideration, our terrestrial weather patterns aren’t that human-friendly either!
Having said that, Jupiter does provide us with some measure of protection. It’s immense gravitational field is probably one of the reasons why Life on Earth managed to take on a permanent foothold. We have had a relatively stable environment for the past hundreds of millions of years because we have this Jovian vacuum cleaner taking the brunt of the impacts out there.
So, thanks Jupiter! Better you than us!