October 15, 2021 to be exact Something hit Jupiter hard. This is the first such collision since Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell on the gas giant in 1994.
It is also the first impact recorded by an astronomical observatory since then. They were recorded by the Planetary Observing Camera for Transiting Scanning (PONCOTS) at Kyoto University. flash seen in 12 seconds Recordings:
Previously, amateur astronomers had observed smaller collisions by chance. This is the first detection by a specially designed instrument. Astronomers are now publishing an analysis of this collision on the ArXiv website.
Jupiter collisions with space rocks are not uncommon. Estimated They occur a hundred to a thousand times more often than impacts on Earth. As a result, they provide valuable data on the potential risks of a meteorite fall on our planet.
Kyoto astronomers estimate that the object that collided with Jupiter must have been quite a few More than 4 million kilograms. On this basis, they estimated that it was an object with a diameter of 15-30 meters.
It’s not an amazing size, but the acceleration in Jupiter’s gravitational field is two and a half times greater than the acceleration in the gravitational field of Earth. The high speed through the atmosphere compressed the gases and ignited the rocks to about 8000 degrees.
was enough for With a capacity of 2 million tons of TNT, or megatons. For comparison, the meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013 was about four times weaker.
The Kyoto team plans to upgrade PONCOTS to better monitor the space bombardment of Jupiter.
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