New Impact Event at Jupiter Found (03 June 2010)

Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley (whose video this is) of Australia and Christopher Go of the Philippines have independently observed an impact event on Jupiter. The strike occurred at 20:31 UT on June 3rd, 2010 and produced a bright flash of light in the giant planet's cloudtops., Anthony Wesley: http://acquerra.com.au/astro/, Christopher Go: http://astro.christone.net/, credit: Anthony Wesley (video), NASA (text)

Christopher Go of the Philippines observed an impact event on Jupiter. The strike occurred on June 3 2010 and produced a bright flash of light in the planet's cloudtops.

This photo of Jupiter taken June 3, 2010 by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley shows a bright fireball from an apparent meteor or other object. Skywatcher Christopher Go of the Philippines also caught the event on video. Credit: Anthony Wesley.

A most recent impact event on Jupiter has been observed (video - .wmv file). The Planetary Society Blog has an been giving updates, here is their latest one. From Space.com article...

A huge fireball has been spotted on Jupiter in yet another collision from space caught on camera and video by amateur astronomers.

The new Jupiter crash occurred on June 3 at 20:31 UT (4:31 p.m. Eastern Time) and was spotted by skywatcher Anthony Wesley in Australia and fellow amateur astronomer Christopher Go in the Philippines.

Wesley's photos show the Jupiter fireball blazing in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet. So far, no visible scar in the clouds has been reported from the event.

Wesley described the event as a "large fireball" on his website, where he posted the photos taken from Broken Hill, Australia.

This new impact on Jupiter comes less than a year after a spectacular crash on July 19, 2009, when what scientist now think was an asteroid about 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide slammed into the planet. That collision created a massive bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. [Gallery: Jupiter gets smacked.]

It was Wesley, too, who first spotted the July 2009 collision. His observations kicked off an international observation campaign to study the impact site.

Astronomers initially suspected a comet in last year's impact, but announced this week that a rogue asteroid was the most likely culprit.

And Jupiter has been smacked before.

In 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke into more than 20 pieces and pelted Jupiter repeatedly. At the time, astronomers estimated such impacts could occur on Jupiter every 50 to 250 years. So they were surprised by the July 2009 impact.

From Cosmic Log article...

Actually, two of the world's best-known amateur observers of Jupiter both saw the flash of impact at 20:31 GMT today (4:31 p.m. ET). In Australia, Anthony Wesley captured a picture of the hit just before sunrise Friday (Down Under time). And in the Philippines, Christopher Go turned his pictures into a short video that was posted on SpaceWeather.com.

"I still can't believe that I caught a live impact on Jupiter," SpaceWeather quoted Go as saying.

It's not known exactly what caused the impact, but whether it was an asteroid or a comet, it's likely to have left a mark on Jupiter's cloud tops. So the call has gone out for all astronomers, professional and amateur, to monitor Jupiter in the hours ahead.

Link: Space.com Article

Link: MSNBC Article Cosmic Log

Link: Impact Video (.wmv file) 

Link: Article (Cebu astronomer documents asteroid hitting Jupiter)

Link: Christopher Go website on Jupiter observations

Link: The Planetary Society Blog Update (Confirmation of the Jupiter impact from Christopher Go)

Link: The Planetary Society Blog Update (The June 3 Jupiter Impact: 22 hours later)

Link: YouTube (Jupiter Impact)

Link: YouTube (Asteroid Impact on Jupiter; Anthony Wesley (2010.06.03))