On Monday, September 13, at about 6:39 P.M. Eastern, Harald Paleske of Germany and José Luis Pereira of Brazil both caught on video a pretty significant object impacting the surface of Jupiter.  From the size of the impact, a rough guess is an asteroid or comet a few hundred feet wide.  That’s no slouch; a hit by something that size on Earth would leave a crater about a mile wide.

 

See more information: Something just hit Jupiter (dailykos.com)

Jupiter's mass gives it a larger gravity field therefore more common for it to pull things this big into it compared to earth, I remember Shoemaker Levy not that long ago, well 25 years ago now which is a long time for us but not long in the timeline of the universe.

Very cool though, Jupiter seems to be our filter for space debris in some ways

4 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

Jupiter's mass gives it a larger gravity field therefore more common for it to pull things this big into it compared to earth, I remember Shoemaker Levy not that long ago, well 25 years ago now which is a long time for us but not long in the timeline of the universe.

Very cool though, Jupiter seems to be our filter for space debris in some ways

Yes, It was a big story 25 years ago and instead of hitting Jupiter, the were smashing into earth and making disaster seem imminent and we should start preparing.

2 hours ago, Greggy_D said:

Ah, good old Arthur. Haven't read the books in ages, but remember finding '2001' in dads book shelf and reading it as a kid!

4 hours ago, Swe_Richard said:

Ah, good old Arthur. Haven't read the books in ages, but remember finding '2001' in dads book shelf and reading it as a kid!

That message was from the film 2010. 😉

10 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

Jupiter's mass gives it a larger gravity field therefore more common for it to pull things this big into it compared to earth, I remember Shoemaker Levy not that long ago, well 25 years ago now which is a long time for us but not long in the timeline of the universe.

Very cool though, Jupiter seems to be our filter for space debris in some ways

 

 

Often referred to as the solar systems vacuum cleaner. 

I was able to simulate the impacts of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments with Jupiter in Dance of the Planets (ARC Science Simulations software) way back in 1994. I still have Dance of the Planets on my shelf, although I am now using a much more accurate integrator (Halley - Electronic Ephemeris of Comets) for my current research into the historical orbital evolution of numbered short period comets. Jupiter's gravity affects the vast majority of them at one time or another, and it is fascinating to see the changes in their orbits during (and after) a close encounter.

Edited September 17, 20214 yr by Christopher Low