Jupiter

Jupiter swallows an asteroid – redux

Pete Baker on September 13, 2012, 4:43 pm | Readers 47

As Space Weather notes Around the world, amateur astronomers have been scanning the cloudtops of Jupiter for signs of debris from an explosion witnessed by Dan Peterson and George Hall on Sept. 10th. So far the cloud layer is blank. “Several observers have now obtained excellent images on the second and third rotations after the fireball, and there is nothing new nor distinctive at the impact site,” reports John H. Rogers, director of the Jupiter Section of the British Astronomical …

Chaos on Europa

Pete Baker on November 17, 2011, 4:40 pm | Readers 13

And that could be a good thing. [Image credit: Nasa/JPL. Image reprocessed by Ted Stryk]. As a BBC report notes, Nasa scientists have published their latest thinking on the chaos terrains of Jovian satellite Europa. [All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! – Ed] *ahem*. It suggests that the “chaos terrains form above liquid water lenses perched within the ice shell as shallow as 3 kilometres”. Here’s a cross-section view through the surface of Europa showing the suspected “Great Lake.” [Image credit: Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel …

“a special perspective of our role and place in the universe…”

Pete Baker on August 31, 2011, 2:16 pm | Readers 16

Three weeks into its journey to our friend and lord, Jupiter, Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has taken a look back at its home planet [on the left] and its natural satellite, the Moon. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech] From the Nasa press release “This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special …

Journey to Jupiter

Pete Baker on August 5, 2011, 3:03 pm | Readers 4

As the BBC reports, and the Guardian notes, Nasa’s Juno Mission to our friend and lord, Jupiter, is scheduled to launch this afternoon on an Atlas V rocket. There’s an impressive Juno mission website too. Lift-off at 15:34 UT [4.34pm BST]. Here’s a short overview of the mission. Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. And, if you have time, here’s the full science briefing via NasaTV. You can also watch the launch live via NasaTV. Or, indeed, here! Update2 I’ve replaced the live Ustream video with …

Jupiter does it again!

Pete Baker on August 23, 2010, 12:23 pm | Readers 3

Via SpaceWeather. Amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city, Japan, has recorded another fireball on Jupiter – confirmed by other observations. Like the last time, there doesn’t appear to be any impact scar in the atmosphere. Here’s the short video showing the impact. That’s one less potentially dangerous object for us to worry about. All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! Keeping Ogdy at bay… For now. Pete Baker

Fireball on Jupiter!

Pete Baker on June 4, 2010, 12:39 pm | Readers 46

Via Space Weather. Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley was the first to observe the Great Black Spot [of Jupiter]. Now he’s gone one better and recorded an actual impact on the gas giant. The resulting fireball was independently confirmed by Christopher Go in the Philipines – his video can be viewed here. Here’s the full processed image of the impact, visible in bottom right. Image credit: Anthony Wesley, Broken Hill Australia. And here’s the raw video observation. The impact occurs in the top left in …