The King of Planets, Jupiter, makes its return to the "earlier" skies of Buffalo this summer. Now rising before midnight, the largest planet of our solar system can be seen shining brightly in the constellation of Sagittarius.
7/20/09- Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, was struck by a large object on July 19, 2009. The impact left a gaping hole in the atmosphere of the planet, resulting in a large "black" spot that can be seen in many amateur astronomer's telescopes. Spaceweather.com has this report.
The object is likely an asteroid or comet, and astronomers will review the effects to determine exactly what the object was, but may never come to an exact conclusion. Dr. Leigh Fletcher of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory states that it would be similar to trying to find a stone thrown into a pond. The hole is approximately the size of the Earth.
Exactly 15 years ago to the day, on July 19, 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the Jovian surface after separating into multiple projectiles, leaving the same type of scarring; but not this big.
Jupiter, the second largest object in our solar system, orbits on the outside edge of the Asteroid Belt, a region containing remnants of the early solar system. Having the largest mass, Jupiter acts like a "vacuum cleaner", pulling in quite a bit of this debris.
We will keep regular updates in our shows on developments as they occur, and here on our observation page.
