Jupiter Impact 2009 |
Jupiter Impact 2009 |
Jul 19 2009, 08:13 PM
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#1
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Very interesting observation of a dark mark on Jupiter... it's starting to ripple out across Twitter...
http://www.irishastronomy.org/cms/forum?fu...;id=79644#79647 More info: http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/ObsReport...ter-impact.html -------------------- |
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Jul 22 2009, 07:30 AM
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#2
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Two points - one is the "Friend or Foe" nature of of Jupiter- google that exact phrase for the research, it's very interesting.
Secondly - twice I've seen people cite Comet impact rates. Who says this is a comet? Could have been an asteroid. If it's one 2km Comet / 250yrs, then what does the statistical distribution tell us for, say, 100m sized objects? 10x more frequent? 100x? |
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Jul 22 2009, 12:29 PM
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#3
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Who says this is a comet? Could have been an asteroid. True. I've been assuming that it was most likely an inbound long-period comet on a "bang for the buck" premise; think that would maximize impact kinetic energy while minimizing the object's mass (and therefore chances of pre-impact detection.) There doesn't seem to be any way to really know for sure, though. The spectral signatures are undoubtedly dominated by indigenous Jovian material, so we'll never know the impactor's gross composition. Looks like the only potential clues would come from finding it in pre-impact imagery, and then only if there were enough of them to determine its orbit (assuming that it wasn't already captured like SL9). -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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