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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Jupiter Impact caught live on Video by a Citizen Astronomer

03 June 2010

Incredible...!

A citizen astronomer with a SCT captured a remarkable high energy impact slamming into Jupiter...

Anthony Wesley and I just caught an impact in Jupiter!! Check out
the video that I got at:

astro.christone.net/jupiter/jupiterimpact.wmv

The impact occurred at around 20:30UT today. This video was done in
blue filter.

And another observer in the Philippines also observed it at the same time:

JUPITER IMPACT! Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley 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 and produced a bright flash of light in the giant planet's cloud tops.

"I still can't believe that I caught a live impact on Jupiter," says Go, who has made a must-see video of the event.

"There were no visible remains at the impact point for the next half hour or so, until sunrise put an end to the imaging," says Wesley.

The nature of the impact is presently unknown. It might have been an asteroid or a comet. In either case, a dark and cindery debris field is expected to develop around the impact point; that's what has happened in the aftermath of previous Jupiter impacts. Professional and amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor Jupiter in the hours ahead, and stay tuned for updates.

Update: Anthony Wesley has pinpointed the impact site at Jovian latitude minus 16.1o, and central meridian longitudes CM1: 300o, CM2: 33.8o and CM3: 210.4o.

Regards,

Chris

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Very Cool...

Spaceweather.com is running it on it's front page:

spaceweather.com/

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I'm going to image Jupiter this morning before sunrise - skies are clear in Chicago...and see if I can see/image any impact evidence..!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Updated image....

Chris Go from the Philippines adds his image of the impact:

When Ars reached Go at his home on the island of Cebu in the Philippines, he simply could not contain his excitement. “When Anthony issued the alert, I was just processing the video of Jupiter I just took, so I checked to see what I got," Go told Ars. "And there it is, I still can’t believe it, wow, it’s just amazing!”

The discovery image taken by Wesley is in red light, shown at top. The video captured by Go shows Jupiter through a blue filter, with a frame rate of approximately 60fps. The video shows the progression of the impact in real time, and the impact flash lasts about 1 second. “I was amazed by how quick the whole thing lasted," said Go. "I always imagined that these events took minutes or hours, but this flash lasted only for a few seconds."

Full story here:

arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/breaking-news-jupiter-hit-by-yet-another-impactor.ars

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Jupiter Imaging from Chicago...

Signs of the impact observed?.........no - I don't think...

It looked clear this early morning for some Jupiter spotting, but I did not want the set up the C11, so the quicker and easier C5 came to the call....

Low clouds were interfering something awful, but I did manage to capture some quick shots with the Canon Powershot S3...

12 hours after the first observed impact....maybe I would get lucky and have it transit across in Chicago skies. Sky conditions were very poor, turbulent and more cloudy than clear...but I waited for the sucker holes to grace me with some peeks.

Now, there is something where the missing band is....and it shows up on a few pics....but it could be many things, included specks of crud and dirt.

Excited, I rushed to set up the C11 and get better brighter pics...but just as I powered up, clouds from the west completely obscured Jupiter...concluding my session.

Did I capture evidence of the impact...I dunno.

If I only would have set up the C11 from the start...damn!..

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Full session narrative and more pics here:

astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Observations&thread=2736