The impact on Jupiter surprises observers in the sky

by

Impact on Jupiter: the moon Io and its shadow on one side and flash of light on the other.
Harald Paleske in Langendorf, Germany, captured this image of a bright flash of light when something struck Jupiter on September 13, 2021. Io and his shadow are on the left side of Jupiter, while the flash is located to the right of the center. Image via Spaceweather.com.

Photographers capture an impact on Jupiter

Observers around the world were surprised on September 13, 2021, when they witnessed an apparent impact on the giant planet Jupiter. A ray of bright light distracted them from their objective of observation: a continuous transit of the shadow of the Jovian moon Io through the face of Jupiter. A couple of lucky astrophotographers managed to capture images from the flash.

Are you interested in cosmic events? Help EarthSky bring them to the screen. Please donate as much as you can to our annual crowdfunding campaign.

The image above comes from Germany. Harald Paleske told SpaceWeather.com that he was watching Io’s dark shadow cross over Jupiter’s surface when the burst of light startled him. He said:

A bright flash of light surprised me. It could only be an impact.

Paleske had been taking a video of Io’s shadow traffic when the event occurred. He looked at his video frames, looking for a satellite or an airplane that might have appeared as the bright patch. But he found no evidence that the event took place near Earth or that he witnessed an earthly event with Jupiter as a mere backdrop. He timed the event as if it happened at 22:39:27 UTC on September 13 and lasted two seconds.

Another astronomer, Brazilian José Luis Pereira, also captured the impact flash. ESA Operations tweeted its photo via Flickr.

A French astrophotographer, JP Arnould, also captured the startling event.

What did Jupiter touch?

It’s too early to tell, but a comet or asteroid would be the most likely culprit. As Spaceweather.com said:

An asteroid the size of 100 meters (about 300 feet) would do the trick.

Observers of the sky with telescopes from all parts of the Earth are about to see Jupiter after the impact. They expect to detect a dark mark or temporary scar resulting from the impact. This was what happened during the best-known impacts on Jupiter, which occurred in July 1994. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 paved a path directly for Jupiter. Professional observatories were prepared to detect the resulting collision. Shoemaker-Levy 9 left a trail of debris across the gas giant planet as Jupiter’s intense tidal forces shattered them.

A line of 3 brown spots spots along the southern hemisphere of Jupiter.
The brown spots mark the places where fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke Jupiter’s atmosphere in July 1994. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

In a nutshell: An impact on Jupiter on September 13, 2021 causes stellar observers to look up at the sky to see if they can detect persistent evidence of the event.

Kelly Kizer Whitt

See articles

About the author:

Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a scientific writer specializing in astronomy for more than two decades. He began his career at Astronomy Magazine and has made regular contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among other outlets. The illustrated book for children, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. He has also written a dystopian novel for young people entitled A Different Sky. When he doesn’t read or write about astronomy or look at the stars, he enjoys traveling to national parks, creating crossword puzzles, running, tennis and paddleboarding. Kelly lives with her family in Wisconsin.

.Source