1 / 4

Another Impact on Jupiter

Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered a large new dark spot near Jupiter's south pole, which appears to be debris leftover from a comet or asteroid impact. Images at different wavelengths provide useful information about the impact and its effects on Jupiter's atmosphere.

prachael
Download Presentation

Another Impact on Jupiter

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Another Impact on Jupiter • Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered a large new dark spot near Jupiter’s south pole • Hours later, U.S. astronomers alerted by Wesley imaged Jupiter at other wavelengths • The spot appears to be debris in Jupiter’s atmosphere leftover from a comet or asteroid impact impact scar Visible wavelength image of a dark impact scar near Jupiter’s south pole. Image from Anthony Wesley, Murrumbateman Australia.

  2. Information at Different Wavelengths Hubble Space Telescope storm • Images at different wavelengths provide useful information: Visible - The impactor debris is dark relative to Jupiter’s cloud tops Infrared - Impactor debris reflects sunlight at longer IR wavelengths. Nearby clouds appear dark because they lie at lower altitudes, and methane and hydrogen just above them absorb IR radiation. Other IR images show that the atmosphere is warmed by the impact, and that ammonia is present in the atmosphere dark impactor debris visible NASA Infrared Telescope Facility methane and hydrogen absorb IR light from lower altitudes impactor debris reflects sunlight infrared Visible and infrared (2.23 microns) images of the impact site taken 4 days after discovery, and 20 hours after discovery, respectively

  3. The Big Picture incoming comet fragments • Impact events allow scientists to study the impact process, the atmospheric material excavated by the impact, and upper atmospheric motions • A similar (but larger) impact event was observed at Jupiter 15 years earlier. At the time, it was thought to be a rare event. Impacts on Jupiter are more common than previously thought OR Improved monitoring of Jupiter, particularly at infrared wavelengths, can now capture smaller impact events impact scars Images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 after Jupiter’s gravity broke it into pieces, and the resulting impact scars in July 1994.

  4. For More Information… Prepared for the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society by David Brain and Nick Schneider dpsdisc@aas.org - http://dps.aas.org/education/dpsdisc/ - Released 3 December, 2009 Web Resources and Press Releases • The Planetary Society - 09/13/09 - “The Jupiter Impact” http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002049/ • University of Central Florida - ‘Jupiter Impact’ http://planets.ucf.edu/resources/jupiter-impact • Goddard Space Flight Center - ‘What Hit Jupiter?’ http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/multimedia/largest/impact2009.html Images • Slide 1 image from Anthony Wesley, Murrambateman Australia http://jupiter.samba.org/ • Slide 2 HST visible image from NASA/ESA/H. Hammel/Jupiter Impact Team http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/23/ • Slide 2 IRTF infrared image from NASA/JPL/IRTF http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112 • Slide 3 SL9 fragments infrared image from H.Weaver/T.Smith/NASA http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image2.html • Slide 3 SL9 impacts image from NASA/HST http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950714.html

More Related