PDA

View Full Version : Jupiter Impact: Mystery of the Missing Debris (audio/video)



jetdawgg
06-13-10, 09:25 AM
June 11, 2010: On June 3rd, 2010, something hit Jupiter. A comet or asteroid descended from the black of space, struck the planet's cloudtops, and disintegrated, producing a flash of light so bright it was visible in backyard telescopes on Earth. Soon, observers around the world were training their optics on the impact site, waiting to monitor the cindery cloud of debris which always seems to accompany a strike of this kind.

They're still waiting.
"It's as if Jupiter just swallowed the thing whole," says Anthony Wesley of Australia, one of two amateur astronomers who recorded the initial flash. The other, Christopher Go of the Philippines, says "it was thrilling to see the impact, but the absence of any visible debris has got us scratching our heads."

http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/06/11/wesley_composite_strip.jpg

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/11jun_missingdebris/